I must be in the minority, I really like open banking and I’ve paid for one of solutions, It’s made my life so much easier.
I don’t disagree with Ann but I still think it should stay, and that’s not because I get a lot out of it.
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That’s one of the reasons it should stay.
If you personally find it of benefit, then no doubt others will too.
Folk like myself, who have no real use for it can simply not use it.
Each to their own and all that 
Open Banking was massively overestimated at the start, and we’ll collectively underestimate its impact long term.
For Payments it’ll be huge, the savings on transaction fees compared to cards are huge, the platform I work on will hopefully implement it during 2022 in one way or another.
BTW, have Starling started using the standard APIs yet, or are they still doing their own thing?
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Still doing there own thing hence a lot of open banking things don’t support starling
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Thought so, which is why I find Boden’s attitude on this a bit jarring, as Starling aren’t even trying to be part of the eco system.
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Indeed, if Starling really wanted to make a success of it they could maybe start nearer to home
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Open Banking is a mess, it’s just evolved into trash. It really needs a V2 to be worked on which would then replace the 
currently on offer. If only all these people would put their collective heads together and communicate to get it done.
It’s a bit, but the payment side now that recurring payments are a thing, are great, the difference in transactions fees are huge, and you get away from the 2% tax that the card networks impose or even the direct debit bureaux fees.
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I think they have done just that by building their own API.
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I think you could perhaps say that they were quick off the ground and innovative.
But building in extra cost for industry having to deal with a non standard API is a bit rubbish. If they were committed to it - which Anne is clearly not - now would be the time to move to the open banking standard.
What I find interesting is that Anne is looking at open banking through a very narrow lens of increasing switching. I sometimes find her very innovative then sometimes really stuck in old mental models. This, I think, is an example of the latter.
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I don’t think it’s either. She firmly approaches subjects through the lens of does it give Starling a competitive advantage. Like she wants Starling to succeed and be the better choice for people but doesn’t want the rest of industry to be able to do the same. That’s the takeaway I get from many of her comments.
Open banking has the potential to remove the competitive advantage newer banks have. Why switch, when you could, in theory, be able to just keep your existing account and augment it with a much better app from a third party?
I know a quite a few people who are happier with a combination of [insert traditional bank here] and Emma than they ever were with Monzo or Starling for instance.
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That was all I was getting at there, not implementing the Open Banking standard API
No slights at all on the Starling API, especially because I have never taken a look at it, but no wonder they are not seeing much Open Banking activity
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Oh totally. But I think that’s the old mental model. She’s looking at OB only through the how does it help Startling? lens. And, more than that, it really does feel to me that Starling is a modern version of a traditional high street bank. It’s very good at doing that, but there’s something about it that feels inherently traditional to me.
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I’ve found Open Banking very useful for pulling money out of my account from a different app. For instance, I can set up a Wise transfer and from within the Wise app and pull the required funds out of my Monzo account. I assumed that Starling also supported Open Banking and I’d be able to do similar, so am surprised to hear they don’t. Another reason for me not to keep funds in my Starling account I guess.
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Open Banking is beneficial to the consumer. I can’t believe anyone would support a bank not offering it!
I too assumed Starling offered it.
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When I pay my credit cards by open banking Starling are never on the lists of available banks
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Out of interest, do you actually find this to be a better experience? If so, who is it with?
I’ve yet to come across an implementation of this sort of functionality that isn’t arduous, frustrating and obtuse. For me, it’s much easier to do it the way I’m used to, trust, and know will work.
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Yeah I use it for both Lloyds and new day credit cards. It’s just as easy as it used to be paying by debit card tbh but it automatically opens Monzo to confirm. Hopefully it’ll be more streamlined as time goes on
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I don’t think I’ve ever used it since I set it up.
If I’m moving money to Monzo from Lloyds, then I’ll just select my account that I have saved as a payee. No apps bouncing back and forth for permissions.
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I know teams who have looked at Payment Initiation APIs, and the constant thing is Starlings are different enough from the standard ones to be a real pain to handle, and to integrate.
There’s no reason for this, other then bloody mindedness, and thinking they know better.
Boden is a pretty traditional banker, and it does show a fair bit, this is a good example. And yes the CMA 9 would do the same if they could, but they can’t, thankfully
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