EU Open Banking is still leading but US Open Banking is catching up
2024-08-06 07:12
Whereas US banks were previously lagging, there have been significant developments in the US Open Banking space in the last 12 months. While Europe still represents the lion’s share of available APIs, with 14% North American banks now make up the second- biggest geographic share in the OBM (as depicted in Figure 4). Moreover, as can be concluded from Figure 1, the quality of US developer portals has improved significantly, with Citi Bank positioning itself among the Masters in Openness. Additionally, US Bank and Wells Fargo can be highlighted due to their improved performance in the 2023 update. Both banks significantly expanded their API catalogue, with US Bank now being among the frontrunners in Functional Scope. Other noteworthy mentions are Cross River Bank as well as Capital One, with their above-average performance on Functional Scope and Developer Experience, respectively. Lastly, banking giants such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Chase (separate portals despite being one entity) are slowly revealing their Open Banking offerings. However, they remain limited in accessibility, which makes it difficult to fully assess some US banks.
One key differentiator for US banks is the extensive offering of Investment and Foreign Exchange APIs. These APIs allow end-users to directly access relevant data and insights into different investment vehicles such as stocks, bonds, exchange rates, and currency pairs offered by the banks. Additionally, some of these APIs also enable the trading of such assets at the current time or at a predetermined later date. Considering that US Open Banking developments are industry-driven rather than regulatory-driven, US financial institutions are exploring proactive, offensive Open Banking strategies to offer APIs that can unlock new value streams.