Open banking is powering ahead in Europe, but open financing is still over the horizon

Open banking has been making great strides in Europe in the past few years, underpinning increasing numbers of transactions in account-to-account payments, digital wallets, cash-flow management and accounting systems, investment platforms and more. 

Open banking platforms, which facilitate third-parties, like apps, to access banks’ APIs, are flourishing, with players like Plaid, Nordigen, Truelayer, Yodlee, Yolt, Moneyhub charging ahead in this new space.

In September, UK-based Truelayer closed a $130 million funding round, giving the five-year-old company a valuation of over $1 billion. Last summer, Visa announced it would buy Swedish open banking platform Tink for €1.8 billion, just one of the ongoing acquisitions in the sector. Open-banking platform (and BNPL giant) Klarna grabbed the biggest round for a valuation of over €37 billion.