Open Banking Europe launches TPP tool

Open Banking Europe (OBE) has launched a third-party provider (TPP) Authorisation Number Lookup tool allowing parties to quickly search and identify regulated firms involved in the Open Banking regime.

The tool, publicly available on OBE’s website, has stored the Unique Reference Numbers of all regulated entities registered with the 31 National Competent Authorities (NCA) across Europe to help facilitate PSD2-related operations.

The Global Unique Reference Number (GURN) is issued by an NCA to uniquely identify an account-servicing payment service provider (AS-PSP), a third-party provider (TPP) or any other regulated entity.

The national number is made “globally unique” by combining key data, including the country code, NCA short name, and the Unique Reference Number (URN) assigned by the home NCA, and is used for transactions under the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) to identify TPPs and AS-PSPs.

By writing the name of a regulated entity in the search bar, OBE said it is possible to find out their Global Unique Reference Number within seconds.

The tool builds on OBE’s objective to provide PSD2 directory services that allow open banking participants to identify and contact each other more easily and create a less unambiguous marketplace.

“Open Banking Europe is committed to providing openness and transparency and tools to the industry to support Open Banking in Europe,” John Broxis, managing director of OBE, said.

“A free and publicly available utility to check the authorisation numbers issued by national competent authorities is a basic building block of this promise,” Broxis added.

The tool follows the launch of OBE’s Transparency Directory last November which contains information about PSD2 and Open Banking application programming interfaces (APIs).

The directory is designed to meet the needs of TPPs and AS-PSPs, storing all key information on APIs in one single place.

Without a central directory, TPPs and ASPSPs would have to go to the website of every single bank in Europe to look up the necessary information, OBE said.

The Transparency Directory currently contains information on over 1,500 developer portals of banks, with information about other banks and financial institutions following in the coming months.

Similar directories have been launched in the UK, with the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) managing its own directory that enables account providers, including banks, building societies and payment companies, to verify the identity of regulated third party providers.