April 2021 Summaries

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK has proposed entrusting third-party providers (TPPs) with reauthentication responsibilities, recognizing the harm caused by the current 90-day requirement. This change is essential for providing a seamless open banking experience and allowing consumers to manage their financial data more effectively. The FCA and TPPs should work together to ensure the re-consent journey meets consumer security and convenience needs, supporting the development of innovative data-driven services that promote long-term relationships between consumers and TPPs.

Paysend and Plaid are partnering to provide international money transfers through Open Banking payments, offering a convenient and low-cost solution for foreign workers to send money back home. This partnership aims to reduce the time and clicks required for authorizing transfers by up to 80% using Plaid's instant payment initiation service. With this integration, Paysend customers can now make "click, confirm, and carry on" payments without typing out card numbers or doing manual bank transfers. The partnership also provides customers with better insight into their transaction data, helping them improve their financial choices and prevent overspending during a time of economic uncertainty. As a result, foreign workers can now send money internationally more easily and efficiently, while Paysend offers extra incentives for customers who use Plaid's Payment Initiation service.

Ziggma is leveling up portfolio management by reducing the complexity of portfolio management and investment research, enabling everyday investors to better understand, optimize, and monitor their portfolios. The company was founded in 2020 by CEO Ulrich Ebensperger with the goal of helping investors overcome the challenges of managing a portfolio, which he believes can be difficult due to the many aspects involved. To achieve this, Ziggma partnered with Plaid to enable users to connect their investment accounts, thus providing a platform for users to manage their portfolios more efficiently.

Plaid has been working on improving its customer experience by taking into account feedback from users. The company has focused on enhancing the quality of its products and tools, with a particular emphasis on addressing diverse needs among fintech developers. Cross-functional teams have been assembled to investigate and champion user feedback, leading to changes in internal systems, new dashboards for monitoring, and reinforced existing tools. Plaid has also made improvements to its Dashboard, added support for more utility providers, and introduced webhooks for Liabilities. The company plans to continue relying on open feedback from users to guide its roadmap and prioritize future quality improvements.

The Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) open banking remedies have been instrumental in the development of open banking in the UK, but now it's time for regulators to reassess their oversight as industry players shift towards open finance. The CMA has opened a consultation on the future governance of open banking, which should build on the work done by the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) without replicating its efforts, particularly regarding API standards. As the industry has evolved, new challenges have emerged, such as ensuring API performance and availability, which requires technical expertise that ASPSPs currently lack. The transition to a new entity, the Future Entity (FE), is crucial to overcome these issues and ensure open banking remains successful, with the FE needing to leverage market data and be granted enforcement capabilities. Ultimately, collaboration between regulators, industry players, and TPPs will be essential to deliver more open banking products and services that benefit consumers and businesses alike.

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital finance as people shifted their financial lives online. This shift has led to an increase in accessibility and quality of financial products for consumers. Plaid, a platform that enables fintech innovations, recently raised $425 million in Series D financing to support its growth and help build the next generation of digital financial services. The company aims to create a single, integrated platform focused on helping innovators build digital financial products by scaling globally, expanding its product offerings, and enhancing privacy, personalization, decisioning, and automation.