Open Banking Reaches 1 Billion Payment Milestone in the UK

The U.K.’s open banking system has now powered more than 1 billion payments.

That’s according to an announcement Tuesday (July 28) from Open Banking Limited, which also noted a second milestone: the system has now logged 100 billion API calls across its member banks since the debut of open banking more than eight years ago.

“These milestones reinforce the UK’s position as a global leader in open banking and demonstrate an ecosystem that continues to scale in both volume and capability,” Henk Van Hulle, CEO of Open Banking Limited, said in a news release. “As adoption increases and new use cases emerge, Open Banking will play an increasingly vital role in supporting competition, innovation and growth across the UK’s financial services landscape.”

The release includes figures that show the continuing adoption of open banking. Last month, the ecosystem saw 2.81 billion API calls, a 4.4% increase month over month and the highest monthly volume to date.

The system also recorded 40.1 million payments in June. Although single domestic payments fell by 1.2%, that was offset by continued growth in variable recurring payments (VRPs) which were up 6.7% month over month.

“The latest performance data also demonstrated continued operational strength across the ecosystem,” the release said.

“Average response times, the time it takes for a provider to respond to a payment request, improved to 349ms, 50ms faster than the previous reporting period, reflecting ongoing optimisation and performance improvements by ecosystem participants.”

In other open banking news, recent PYMNTS Intelligence research shows that while many institutions see open banking as central to retaining consumer and business relationships, consumers are not totally sold on the concept.

According to “Consumer Sentiment About Open Banking Payments,” completed in collaboration with Trustly, roughly 46% of American consumers said they would be willing to use open banking payments for at least one type of purchase, with monthly bills, groceries and subscriptions attracting the most interest. Still, just 11% of those consumers reported using an open banking payment.

“The read across is that providers still face work explaining when consumers should choose account-to-account payments instead of cards, digital wallets or traditional bank bill pay,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this month.