CFIT’s Open Finance Coalition gets underway

The Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT) has launched its initial coalition, which is focused on Open Finance, and revealed that HSBC, Experian, Zopa, Mastercard and the Open Finance Association are among its founding coalition partners.

CFIT’s Open Finance Coalition has been tasked with demonstrating “the power of leveraging financial data to deliver better financial outcomes to consumers and SMEs” in the UK.

In April this year, CFIT revealed that Open Finance would be the main focus of its first coalition, based on a recommendation from the Kalifa Review.

The first coalition partners have committed to progressing Open Finance in the UK, with support from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and include EY, IBM, Innovate Finance, Open Banking Limited and Revolut.

The other partners are Amazon Web Services, the City of London Corporation, iwoca, KPMG, Leeds City Council, Lloyds Banking Group, MBN Solutions, Monzo, the Association of British Insurers, Allen and Overy, and the Smart Data Foundry.

Ezechi Britton, chief executive officer of CFIT, said: “Over recent weeks we have engaged, listened and prioritised the areas where the effective development of Open Finance and a modernised ecosystem will provide better financial health for all UK citizens.

CFIT chair Charlotte Crosswell

“Fintech is an industry that cares about the end user, and the ecosystem has told us they want us to focus on delivering better consumer financial outcomes and SME financing.”

Britton said the Open Finance coalition is the first time that “such a cross section of the ecosystem has come together to solve complex challenges in this way and on this scale”.

The coalition will begin its programme of work this summer and, from September, working groups will then “accelerate the ideation and create specific outputs, such as new proofs of concept, products or data partnerships between incumbents and fintechs that will make a real difference to businesses and consumers across the UK”.

Charlotte Crosswell, chair of CFIT, added: “We have the foundations and all the ingredients to drive Open Finance forward. Given the current challenges related to the cost of living, we firmly believe that by leveraging existing data and unlocking new datasets, we can have the biggest impact in the shortest time on the wellbeing of UK SMEs and consumers.

“We will be able to show the impact that an ambitious Open Finance roadmap can have. The time for action is now, to ensure that we continue to lead the world in financial innovation, whilst maximising economic growth across all regions of the UK.”

Watch Charlotte Crosswell speaking at the last Women in Open Banking meet-up about how she honed her negotiation skills to promote the benefits of Open Banking to banks, regulators and third parties.