Canada, US are Open Banking ‘global leaders’

The US and Canada are global leaders in Open Banking and open finance API adoption, according to industry-led technical standards body the Financial Data Exchange (FDX). 

The FDX reported that 16 million US consumers are now using its FDX API for Open Banking and open finance data sharing,  

The latest metrics showed that since FDX’s most recent adoption survey in late 2020, an additional 4 million consumers have been transitioned from credential-based data sharing and screen scraping to the industry-led FDX API standards. 

Don Cardinal, managing director of FDX, said: “With FDX’s latest adoption metrics, the US and Canadian financial data ecosystems are showing that FDX’s common, interoperable, industry-led and market-driven API standards are the quickest way to deliver secure and consumer-centric financial data sharing to the marketplace.” 

FDX, which has 185 financial industry members and stakeholders, released version 4.5 of the FDX API in December last year and its Spring release is planned for May 2021. 

Cardinal said that the “common narrative” that the US and Canada are behind on Open Banking “is just wrong”.  

“Not only are FDX technical standards paving the way forward for rapid API adoption in North America that is outpacing the rest of the world, but FDX is evolving the notion of Open Banking.  

“We have defined more than 500 financial data elements and continue to expand the FDX API’s scope based on consumer and market demand. This places us firmly in the realm of open finance,” added Cardinal. 

The UK’s Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) recently reported that 3 million consumers are using its Open Banking API.