Britain is planning to introduce new data sharing rules for banks in an effort to boost competition in the sector.
According to a report from UK’s Open Banking Working Group (OBWG), a common data-sharing standard would allow customers to compare banking products and services.
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This would trigger competition in a sector hitherto dominated by five banks namely HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, RBS and Santander UK, and would offer fintechs an opportunity for innovation.
The move would also allow companies to share information electronically with their accountants.
OBWG, established in 2015 by the UK government to explore how data on accounts transactions can be shared across the sector, said that the new data standard is expected to be unveiled by the end of 2016.
Personal customer transaction data is expected to be included on a read-only basis at the start of 2018, with full customer, business and transactional data to be included by 2019.
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By GlobalDataOBWG co-chair and Barclays executive Matt Hammerstein said: "In our digitally enabled world, the need to seamlessly and efficiently connect different economic agents who are buying and selling goods and services, is critical. The Open Banking Standard is a framework for making banking data work better: for customers; for businesses and; for the economy as a whole."
