UK FCA sets out its vision for open finance

The Financial Conduct Authority has published its open finance roadmap, setting out plans for the development of open finance in the UK through to 2030. The FCA is going to prioritise exploring how financial data sharing can help consumers access mortgages and SMEs access credit before developing other use cases. Firms should prepare to engage with the FCA over the next year to help direct future policymaking.

Opening up finance

Open finance promises a secure way for customers of financial services to access their information and share it with third party providers. Open banking rules already enable the sharing of payment account data; open finance would extend a similar framework to a wider range of financial products and services.

The FCA acknowledges that there are barriers to unlocking open finance. These include consumer data-sharing concerns, business uncertainty over costs and liability, and fragmented regulatory oversight. It plans to engage with the industry to see how these can be mitigated.

2026 priorities

The FCA has identified two use cases where it considers open finance can deliver impactful benefits quickly: (i) mortgages, and (ii) lending to small and medium-sized enterprises.

Its action list for 2026 includes:

• TechSprints, research and testing to gather evidence about how open finance can be used;

• PolicySprints, workshops and roundtables to build consensus on what firms and fintechs need from a future framework to unlock access to key data sets;

• Convening a taskforce to develop a Prioritisation and Real-world Insights Selection Matrix (PRISM) which is intended to help the FCA and industry systematically assess the potential for future use cases; and

• A discussion paper in Q4 2026 on delivering a framework for the first scheme.

Building a platform for future expansion

Another discussion paper next year will consider the long-term regulatory framework for open finance. HM Treasury has the power to introduce new smart data schemes under the Data (Use and Access) Act. In the second half of 2027 the FCA expects to work with the Treasury on the options for a regulatory framework to enable data sharing.

Comparison with the EU

The FCA's roadmap looks ahead to extensive industry engagement over the coming months. The FCA wants to learn the lessons from the roll-out of open banking but there may also be lessons to learn from the EU’s experience of trying to implement a regulatory framework for open finance.

The European Commission proposed a pan-EU regulation for financial data access (FIDA) in summer 2023. The financial services industry have, among other things, raised questions about scope, application and the timetable for the regime. Since then the file has not built momentum and legislators continue to debate the merits of the policy.

The original draft of FIDA envisaged financial institutions becoming members of potentially several data sharing schemes simultaneously. In contrast, the FCA is eyeing a more gradualist approach which scales up by adding more uses cases over the next few years.

Firms and fintechs with an interest in data sharing schemes, in particular for SME lending and mortgages, should take note of the FCA's timetable and consider engaging with the forthcoming initiatives.