Fintech by customer segment targeted (N=690)

METHODOLOGY: Platformable tracks all fintech globally that are accredited or known to use bank APIs. We then review what products they are making available and tally them according to category, and we measure other characteristics such as their target customer segments and business model/monetisation approaches. We review each fintech at least once every three months

Benefits to individuals/households

27% of fintech using open banking APIs focus on the needs of private consumers, that is, individuals and households.

We group all private consumers together as “individuals/households” following the broad category level defined in Consumer Priorities for Open Banking by Reynolds & Chidley, et al.

Examples of emerging fintech products targeting individual/household consumers

Minna Technologies

Subscription Payments

Offers subscription management solution through a single platform that can be linked to one’s bank account

Bank Partners: DankseBank (2.4 million customers), SpareBank1 and SwedeBank (4.3 million customers)

Pravaler

Consumer Loans

Largest fintech platform in Brazil providing education loans. It has also partnerd with 500 higher education providers in Brazil.

Bank Partner: Itaú Unibanco

Peaks

Private Investment Management

Transfers the spare change from the bank account to an investment account which then yields interest or returns

Bank Partner: Rabobank

Benefits to small and medium enterprise (SMEs) consumers

The majority (66%) of fintech created using open banking APIs target small and medium enterprises.

At Platformable, we use the European Commission’s definitions of micro business, small, and medium-sized enterprises, and large enterprises. We also classify sole traders separately.

Examples of emerging fintech products targeting small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

Accelerex

Payment back-end and Infrastructure

Offers electronic payment services mostly targeting SMEs in Nigeria and the West African sub-region

Bank Partners: Polaris Bank, FCMB, FirstBank, Keystone Bank, FIBS, Interswitch

Airwallex

Account Management

Platform to manage international business accounts to simplify FX revenue streams. Offers services in Australia, Hong Kong, UK, USA, China and Europe.

Bank Partner: Deutsche Bank

Enable Banking

Account/API Aggregation Services

Has 329 APIs integrated with major banks in Nordic and Baltic region

Bank Partner: ING, Nordea, BBVA, SwedBank, Deutsche Bank, SEB, DNB

Indirect beneficiaries

Our research in 2020 also helped us clarify three indirect beneficiaries that are receiving (or should receive value) from open banking and open finance. These are modeled on triple bottom line economic reporting and corporate and community sustainability reporting models.

Open banking and open finance open ecosystems should indirectly benefit:

• Society: By generating new tax revenue from market participants, and creating more dynamic engagements between citizens and the services they use with less friction

• Local economies: Open ecosystems should overcome the extractive value risks of larger platform models in which local economies are mined for data but receive no benefits. Open ecosystems should enable new employment, local taxes and other revenue generation, and enable participants to be rewarded for their participation and data sharing

• Environment: Open banking and open finance ecosystems should be sustainable and use limited resources within responsible limits. Growth is not considered a metric in itself, as it does not acknowledge that open ecosystems must work within limited available physical and energy resource constraints. The carbon footprint of all ecosystem participants would be one desirable measure but in the short-term measures may include propensity for a stakeholder to address sustainable usage. For example, Stripe, (an open finance API provider that also integrates open banking APIs) has introduced a climate crisis fund, and apps like Enfuce are using open banking APIs to create fintech products that calculate the carbon footprint of consumer purchases.

Why this is important to measure

Measuring the impact and value generated from open banking and open finance for indirect beneficiaries can help key personas advocate for a more open ecosystem.

Regulators

The benefit to regulators of measuring value for indirect beneficiaries

Open banking and open finance regulators can better align the impact of open banking with broader government policy goals, such as the European Green Deal or efforts to reach the Global Sustainable Development Goals.

Fintech associations

The benefit to fintech associations of measuring bvalue for indirect benficiaries

Fintech associations can use metrics on value generated for society from open banking ecosystems to advocate for a more central role for fintechs in the ecosystem. When banks open APIs in the full spirit intended under the Second Payments Services Directive (PSD2), fintech can grow potentially viable businesses which pay taxes to national governments and generate local employment. The use of savings and budgeting apps could also act as economic multipliers, driving economic activity from consumers who spend or reallocate savings to new economic activity..