Source: Ozone API
Ozone API, the company founded by the authors of the UK Open Banking standard and that delivers the platform trusted by banks, central banks, and regulators in more than 40 countries, has published Commercialising Open Banking: A Practical Guide – a free resource for banks and financial institutions ready to move beyond compliance and build sustainable commercial models around their APIs.
Around 60 jurisdictions have now implemented Open Banking legislation or regulation. Yet most banks continue to treat it as a cost centre: no commercial model, no path to revenue, and no real incentive to go further. The guide makes the case that this is not inevitable – and sets out the practical steps to change it.
The guide introduces a three-category framework built on what Ozone API has observed working across global markets:
- Foundational APIs: The regulatory baseline, but also the foundation for customer retention, market positioning, and ecosystem participation.
- Premium APIs: Value-added services – payments, identity verification, enhanced data – that third parties will pay to access.
- Distribution Channel APIs: APIs that let banks embed their products wherever customers need them, turning Open Banking into a genuine growth channel.
Ozone API co-founder & chief executive officer, Huw Davies
The guide covers all major markets, including the UK (ahead of its Open Finance expansion), the EU (with PSD3 final texts expected in H1 2026), the United States (where commercialisation is becoming an increasingly important topic, while Section 1033 stalls), Brazil (which now has 35 million active users and processes 2.3 billion successful API communications weekly), and the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific.
Huw Davies, co-founder and chief executive officer of Ozone API, said: “Open Banking is now operating in around 60 jurisdictions. That should be a moment to celebrate. But the honest reality is most banks are still treating it as a compliance project. No commercial model, no revenue, no real incentive to go further. We wrote this guide because we’ve sat with banks, central banks, and regulators across six continents and seen what works.
“The shift from compliance to commercialisation isn’t complicated. But it does require banks to make a deliberate decision to build a commercial model, not bolt one on as an afterthought.”
The guide also addresses platform requirements, build versus buy decisions, common pitfalls, realistic timelines, and how to build internal buy-in across technology, product, legal, and executive teams.
Commercialising Open Banking: A Practical Guide is available as a free download. Click here to access.
Further reading: GFT teams up with Ozone API to support Canadian banks on ‘path’ to Open Banking
