Open Banking in Europe

There is little doubt that the birthplace of open banking is Europe. As a concept, open banking can be traced to much earlier times, but it was Europe who, in 2015, enacted the first open banking legislation in the form of the PSD2. Fast forward to today, and Europe is reaping the rewards of being the first mover. Thousands of banks and hundreds of fintechs are now leveraging open banking to communicate with each other using common, secure standards, driving an explosion of innovative financial products and services all across the EU. Although Europe seems united behind common legislation, there have still been delays and confusion, and what works for some countries, doesn’t necessarily work for others. In this episode, Eyal sits down with Panagiotis Kriaris, Head of Business Development at German payment services provider Unzer. Panagiotis has been at the forefront of global open banking since it began, and has spent his career at the intersection of business and technology, bringing senior expertise to financial services across the board, including banking payments, fintech and e-commerce.

Specifically, Eyal and Panagiotis discuss:

The history and evolution of open banking in Europe;

The inevitable disintermediation of financial services;

The coming age of embedded finance;

Banks that have been successful in open banking;

Advice for those hoping to implement open banking.