# Open Banking Open Banking is a pioneering initiative **designed to increase competition and innovation in the UK’s banking market**. It is the first significant attempt to use technology to rebalance markets in favour of consumers. Its objective is to allow bank customers to securely share their data with third parties so a broad range of businesses can compete to provide bank customers with better financial services, more choice and lower prices. Open Banking was the first Smart Data Scheme, it provides three key mechanisms that help organisations enable innovation within the banking sector: * [**The**](https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/) [**Open Banking Standard**](https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/) * [**The Open Banking** **Directory Sandbox**](https://directory.openbanking.org.uk/s/login/) * [**The Ecosystem / App Store**](https://www.openbanking.org.uk/app-store/) This data ecosystem map shows how Barclays uses Open Banking to deliver benefits to customers: ![Through the Open Banking ecosystem, Barclays is able to provide additional services, work with innovative startups, and gain better knowledge of their customers. Explore the map here.](https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/2-w3S7cbCE07sD7vBGnQoO54FR5SHEucOt1tcEVjX5kqpWleyC35N2ZAB1HXqlex7CutEY7yoBSfMc8uYkwGsHPeTA8BIliyLsQZtx5lds_papCy3axuyfgdIuh80mjqoYCWgATO) ### Open Banking Standard The Standard is designed to assist any European account providers in meeting their PSD2 and RTS requirements as well as supporting their application for an exemption from the contingency mechanism. This market-enabling Standard is built in an optional modular format to most effectively meet consumer and market needs {% tabs %} {% tab title="Key info" %} **Description**: [**The Open Banking Standard**](https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/) is designed to assist any European account providers in meeting their PSD2 and RTS requirements as well as supporting their application for an exemption from the contingency mechanism. This market-enabling Standard is built in an optional modular format to most effectively meet consumer and market needs **Owner**: Open Banking Limited **Sector**: Finance **Duration**: 2017 - **Cost**: Ongoing costs include: * FYE '20: £4.6M * FYE '19: £7.4M {% endtab %} {% tab title="Participants" %} The following participant types are registered with Open Banking Ltd.: * [Account Servicing Payment Service Providers (ASPSPs)](https://www.openbanking.org.uk/account-providers/) * [Third Party Providers (TPPs)](https://www.openbanking.org.uk/fintechs/) * [Technical Service Providers (TSPs)](https://www.openbanking.org.uk/technical-service-providers/) {% endtab %} {% tab title="Data" %} * [API Specifications](https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/api-specifications/) * [Security Profile](https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/security-profiles/)[s](https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/customer-experience-guidelines/introduction/section-a/latest/) * [Customer Experience Guidelines](https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/customer-experience-guidelines/introduction/section-a/latest/) * [Operational Guidelines](https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/operational-guidelines/introduction/latest/) * [Reference Library](https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/document-library/) {% endtab %} {% tab title="Impact description" %} Over 700 million API calls as of Dec 2020 {% endtab %} {% tab title="Case study" %} {% file src="" %} Frontier Economics (2019), "[Open Standards For Data: Evaluating the economic and social returns](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xn5Ka_k7NEV15ivpiTWBs85OuxZIc4J-/view)" {% endfile %} {% endtab %} {% endtabs %} ### Open Banking Directory Sandbox A developer sandbox for Account Servicing Payment Service Providers (ASPSPs) and Third Party Providers (TPPs) to test their services and Technical Service Providers (TSPs) to test their open banking technologies. {% tabs %} {% tab title="Key info" %} **Description**: The [**Open Banking Directory Sandbox**](https://directory.openbanking.org.uk/s/login/) provides an environment and dummy data to test services and open banking technologies. **Owner**: Open Banking Limited **Sector**: Finance **Duration**: 2017 - **Cost**: Ongoing costs include: * FYE '20: £4.6M * FYE '19: £7.4M {% endtab %} {% tab title="Participants" %} * ASPSPs and TPPs can test their services in the Directory Sandbox. * Technical Service Providers (TSPs) can use Directory Sandbox to test their open banking technologies. {% endtab %} {% tab title="Data" %} Dummy data is provided as part of the Sandbox {% endtab %} {% tab title="Case study" %} [**High level use cases for the Open Banking Directory**](https://openbanking.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DZ/pages/1150124033/Directory+2.0+Technical+Overview+v1.5#Directory2.0TechnicalOverviewv1.5-HighLevelUseCases) {% endtab %} {% endtabs %} ### Open Banking Ecosystem / App Store The Open Banking App Store is a catalogue of open banking enabled-apps and services. {% tabs %} {% tab title="Key info" %} **Description**: The [**Open Banking App Store**](https://www.openbanking.org.uk/app-store/) helps consumers and businesses to discover fully regulated and secure apps and services that are open banking-enabled. It supports potential users to compare products, and quickly understand the functionality of each, based on standardised categories. **Owner**: Open Banking Limited **Sector**: Finance **Duration**: 2017 - **Cost**: Ongoing costs include: * FYE '20: £4.6M * FYE '19: £7.4M {% endtab %} {% tab title="Participants" %} Over 100 apps and services are listed on the directory. {% endtab %} {% tab title="Data" %} Open banking data {% endtab %} {% tab title="Impact description" %} 2020 showed [a rapid uptake of open banking-enabled products and services](https://openbanking.foleon.com/live-publications/annual-report-2020-ug/use-cases/) {% endtab %} {% endtabs %} ###