The FCA, Financial Conduct Authority, just issued their roadmap for the next decade in terms of open finance. The aim is to move to an open and inclusive AI-driven financial world. Here is a summary:
Open finance is essentially the next step after open banking by taking secure data sharing beyond payments into everything from mortgages and savings to investments and insurance. The goal is simple: give people and businesses control of their financial data so it can be reused to get better, faster and more personalised services.
The UK regulator’s roadmap lays out a plan to move from idea to reality by 2030. In the short term (2026), the focus is on testing real use cases, particularly improving SME lending and making mortgages easier. Then, from 2027, it shifts into building frameworks and infrastructure, before scaling fully by the end of the decade.
If it works, the upside is significant. Consumers get better deals, faster decisions and more tailored financial services. SMEs get easier access to credit. Firms get lower costs and more innovation opportunities. And the broader economy benefits from better capital allocation and productivity gains.
The vision is also very aligned with where technology is heading. Open finance, combined with AI and richer datasets, could enable things like automated financial management, smarter lending decisions and even agentic finance where systems act on your behalf.
That said, there are real challenges: people worry about sharing data, firms aren’t always incentivised to participate, regulation is fragmented, and the infrastructure isn’t fully there yet. Solving trust, governance and interoperability is just as important as building the tech.
The roadmap itself (shown on page 19) is quite structured: experiment with TechSprints, agree priorities via PolicySprints, design frameworks with industry and government, then roll out schemes in cycles through test, consult, launch, repeat.
Net-net: this is about turning financial data into a usable, portable asset and, if done right, it could reshape how money, credit and financial services actually work.
You can download the full FCA report here or read it below:
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...