When will everything, everywhere be open? Oh, around 10:33

I had a chat with a friend the other day about Open Banking and they asked if I’d heard about 1033. 1033? Is that a PIN code for their cash?

No. As it turns out, 1033 is the section of the USA’s Consumer Financial Protection Act that will introduce Open Banking to our American friends. You can find out all the deets here:

“In October 2023, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a rule to accelerate the shift to open banking and establish stronger financial data rights. The proposed rule, which would be the first to implement Section 1033 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, would require banks and other data providers to help consumers access and share their financial data through safe, secure, and reliable developer interfaces (APIs).”

Interesting. But what is Section 1033?

“Section 1033, part of Dodd-Frank, gives consumers the right to access and share their financial data. Section 1033 requires financial services providers to make available to consumers – and representatives acting on their behalf – certain information in those providers’ control. This can include information like a consumer’s transactions or the balance in their financial account.”

OK, so America is finally catching up with Open Banking. Why is this important?

Well, I guess the whole world is moving to open, connected financial systems that encourage banks to partner with thousands of possible partners. This is something I’ve argued for years, and now it’s finally happening everywhere. The issue is that an awful lot of banks don’t know what’s actually happening.

What I mean by this is that there are still many banks who are not partnering, not participating, not curating the financial ecosystem. It’s like that old quote:

“There are those who make things happen, those who watch what’s happening and those who ask what happened.”

An awful lot of banks are falling into the second two categories. Meantime, the Open Banking movement is definitely in the first camp.

Take Open Banking Ltd who’s CEO Henk Van Hulle notes that there are “more than 8 million active users of open banking in the UK, and in November 2023 we saw a record 12.85m open banking-enabled payments made - this is a year-on-year growth of 78.5% (from 7.2m payments in November 2022). As big tech begins to come on board with open banking, I predict that we will see payments double in the space of just two years.”

The UK implemented Open Banking eight years ago. The USA is doing it soon. It’s not popular with everyone but, by the end of this decade, I reckon that every country, everywhere will be open. Oh, they already are!