Open banking maturity has soared across Europe over the last 12 months,  according to new research published in Yapily’s annual European open banking league table. 

Combining expertise, knowledge, and experience with data from its open banking platform, Yapily has ranked 18 European countries on a 10-point scale according to the maturity of open banking in each market. The league table is based on a number of criteria, including local regulatory oversight and enforcement, digital readiness of the population, domestic payments infrastructure, bank integrations, presence of third-party providers (TPPs), and API performance and standardisation.

The UK takes the top spot for the second year running, with Germany moving up to 2nd place and Sweden 3rd. 

With significant political support and a pro-innovation regulatory environment, open banking adoption has continued to skyrocket in the UK. There are now 6 million active users and open banking payments are growing 500% YoY, according to the latest statistics from the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE). The UK also boasts the highest number of registered third-party providers in Europe, helping to turbocharge the development of its open banking ecosystem. 

Close behind is Germany, given its strong regulatory supervision and usage of Berlin Group’s API standards, the most prescriptive after those adopted by the UK’s OBIE. The country also makes the final with high payment conversion rates, maturity of local Bank API standards, and rich coverage across all payment types scoring highly.

In third place, Sweden leads some impressive results for the Nordics in this year’s table, with regional regulatory regimes, highly developed digital infrastructures, and a collaborative approach to cross-border payments driving open banking maturity in the region.

However, as the ecosystem continues to evolve at a fast pace, there are a number of challenges and opportunities on the horizon. Improved collaboration between banks, governments, regulators, and TPPs at the local and EU level is needed to address a lack of standardisation and inconsistent levels of regulatory oversight and enforcement.

Stefano Vaccino, Founder and CEO of Yapily, said: “The league table shows that Europe is making significant strides in open banking, but we must continue to press on. We are on the brink of a financial revolution that will help to create better and more accessible financial services for everyone. I’m excited to watch these markets continue to drive innovation and adoption forward as we evolve from open banking towards open finance - and beyond that horizon, open data. ”

Maria Palmieri, Director of Public Policy at Yapily, commented: “Whilst the ecosystem as a whole is moving in the right direction, discrepancies across EU member states could slow the rate of progress. Although the European Commission has proposed to implement an open finance framework by 2024, member states that are still behind in open banking could face a number of interoperability challenges, exacerbating the fragmentation that already exists.

“At the same time, the UK may have retained its position at the top of the leaderboard, but other markets are fast catching up. To stay there, the UK Government must act quickly and decisively to encourage further growth and innovation,” she added.