The European open banking ecosystem has made significant progress, but there are still obstacles that hinder a seamless customer journey. Plaid works to help stakeholders understand the value of a rich third-party provider (TPP) ecosystem and navigate the fragmented landscape. The Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) aims to facilitate an obstacle-free process, but bank-imposed obstacles such as mandatory redirections or multiple SCAs can interfere with consumer choice and limit success. The European Banking Authority (EBA) has published opinions to remedy access issues, including asking local regulators to take action against banks that impose obstacles for TPPs that restrict open banking and consumer rights. Plaid advocates for increased transparency in PSD2 metrics and API data points to enable TPPs to develop integrations with the best-performing APIs, as well as a dedicated escalation process for TPPs to raise issues, such as local notification processes to capture unplanned unavailability events in a formal manner.