Open Banking is a secure way to share your financial information. It is now available on your Personal Finance Portal (PFP).
The introduction of open banking is a great opportunity to put you in control of your money. It is important to understand what it is and what it can do for you.
Briefly, open banking can help you improve your spending habits, manage your budget, and save you money.
What is Open Banking?
Open Banking is a new, additional service allowing you to securely make your online banking data available to third-party applications. By authenticating and giving permission directly through your PFP account, you never have to share your login credentials. You will need to refresh your access consent every 90 days in line with Open Banking Guidelines. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
What are the benefits?
Linking your accounts to PFP with Open Banking will help you to understand exactly where you spend your money and where it is coming from. The system will automatically break down your income and expenditure into categories such as Household, Loans and Finance, and Lifestyle. This should help us to give you more comprehensive advice.
How do I set up Open Banking?
Linking your current accounts and credit cards with PFP is simple. When you log in, select ‘Add Account’ and choose the bank/building society. The system will prompt you to give consent and it will direct you to the provider’s website to authenticate the account. You can choose which available accounts to link with PFP. Once selected PFP will automatically populate with 3 months of historical transactions.
You can then click on the ‘Spending’ tab (previously called ‘Income & Expenditure’) to view the detailed breakdown. The system imports new transactions every day.
Which accounts are covered by Open Banking?
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) initially instructed the UK’s largest banking providers to make their payment accounts (current account and credit cards) available through Open Banking. Accounts from the following providers are available initially, with more to follow: Bank of Scotland, Barclays, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander.
Some savings accounts are supported if the bank/building society considers them to be ‘payment accounts’, but this varies by provider. When you set up Open Banking on your PFP account you will see a list of the accounts that are available to link.
Open Banking does not fully support joint accounts yet and treats any linked accounts as personal ones which could lead to duplication between spouses. Intelliflo is currently looking at a solution to rectify this.
Regulation
Open Banking is part of the EU Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) and the FAC regulates it. Our technology partner and PFP provider, Intelliflo, is an FCA Registered Account Information Service Provider (RAISP).
Registering your PFP account
If you haven’t done so already, registering your PFP account is simple. It only takes a few minutes, and you can do it via your computer, tablet, or smartphone. Visit https://pwsfinancialconsultingltd.mypfp.co.uk/account/register, enter your email address and follow the instructions sent in the activation email.
