UK: The UK’s largest credit reference agency, Experian, can now offer Open Banking and PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2) services to enable the exchange of bank account information between people and organisations. The FCA has given it permission to operate as an Account Information Services Provider (AISP).

The accreditation allows Experian to help people and organisations benefit from the Open Banking initiative. A new suite of products will allow customers to share data in a secure and compliant way. This will complement Experian’s existing credit bureau services.

Tom Blacksell, B2B Managing Director at Experian, said: “This accreditation from the FCA underlines our commitment to support Open Banking. One bank has already signed up to use Experian’s Open Banking platform, and we’re running several proof of concepts with other clients so they can explore a range of innovative new services.”

Open Banking will help people to prove they can afford products, even if they have a limited credit history. When people choose to share bank account information with financial service providers they can receive the more appropriate products, improved services and better deals.

It will be a useful tool for organisations to ensure they only lend people and small businesses what they can afford to repay, while it will be useful to price comparison websites, brokers and background checking providers.

Open Banking will also help lenders to meet FCA regulatory obligations on affordability and reduce costs when processing applications. Adopting new data assets will be easier from both a technical and consumer support perspective.

In 2017, Experian acquired Runpath, a UK-based fintech company, which improves its ability to aggregate Experian data with external sources. Many of the UK’s leading price comparison websites use Runpath’s technology, and it has also been used to test the government’s Pensions Dashboard concept. New services will be brought to market using Runpath as Open Banking APIs continue to be implemented in the coming months.