The information that you choose to share through Open Banking will vary depending on the service that you want to receive. In the mortgage example that we talked about earlier, a mortgage provider might want to see your name and address information to verify your identity, as well as your direct debits so they know what your regular financial commitments are and your transactions so they can understand how affordable their mortgage would be.

However, if you signed up for a savings app, that rounded up your loose change on every purchase and moved it to a savings account automatically, they wouldn’t need to see what direct debits you had, but they would need your permission to move money into your savings account.

When you connect to any financial service or app through an Open Banking API, you will be clearly shown what information you are giving permission to be shared, for what purpose and for how long. You will be able to manage all of the business or services that you have given permission to from your online banking. 

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is an update of an existing legislation implemented by The European Union which means that companies can only legally access and keep data about a consumer that they will use to provide a service or tool. Meaning companies can’t store or use customer or consumer data unnecessarily.

When asking consumers for any data, a business must always have a lawful reason for processing that persons data. The data has to be necessary to provide services that the customer has signed up for or for marketing purposes when the customer has given their explicit consent to receive marketing content.

You have probably already noticed businesses asking you to tick communication preference boxes or confirm that you are happy to continue receiving information from them. This is the new GDPR legislation being put into action, it becomes law on the 25th of May 2018.