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How an Open Standard API Could Revolutionize Banking
An anonymous reader writes: Open bank data will give us the freedom to access all banks in real time and from a single view, automatically calculating the best deals in complete transparency, which will be a significant step forward for social good and give people more control over their finances. Meanwhile, financial tech incubators, accelerators, and startups are creating a more experienced talent pool of developers ready to act upon these newly available assets. From the article: "The United Kingdom government has commissioned a study of the feasibility of UK banks giving customers the ability to share their transactional data with third parties via an open standard API. First mentioned alongside the autumn statement back in December, the chancellor has now outlined plans for a mandatory open banking API standard during the recent budget in March."
Does the author serious thinks banks are going to adopt anything that is "a significant step forward for social good and give people more control over their finances". Most of the money they make is off people who can't control their finances effectively.
Keep in mind their entire business is moving numbers from one pile to another. Anything that keeps them in control of the access to these piles and information about them is a good thing to them.
I can understand benefits of standard, open API for automatic processing of orders for companies and various home-budget tools. But I don't get "automatically calculating the best deals in complete transparency". Do you really need a program, querying 100 of banks in realtime for the best place to have your current account _today_? And tomorrow you are going to switch, because international transfers over there are half cent cheaper?
API for transactions - sure yes. But API for bank offers metadata? Isn't it bit too much?