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A Big Step in Open Banking
At the start of this week, Up (a digital bank) released the first version of their API (a way for programmers, developers, and anyone interested to access their data in an open and flexible format).
This is big news because it proceeds a huge shift of power for consumers in the Australian Banking industry.
Before we can get into why this matters, we need to look back at what’s happened in the field so far.
History
- Credit XKCD 927
In 2018, the Australian Government introduced CDR, the Consumer Data Right, which mandates that Australian Citizens should have access to their banking data in such a way that it can be transferred between licensed providers.
This is similar to the European Payment Services Directive, which implements a set of standards for financial institutions to talk to each other and transfer data.
The CDR is still being rolled out, with the biggest step, providing transaction data, having gone live July 1st (surprisingly undeterred by current events).
After digging a bit, I couldn’t immediately find a way as a consumer to get access to any of my data. At the end of the day, this leaves me feeling that this bill has had little or no effect on how I can handle my data, leaving access to those with the appropriate licenses and arrangements with ANZ.
All in all, access to banking data feels messy. Up isn’t necessarily solving the problem, it’s adding to the deluge of arbitrary protocols, but at least it’s consumer friendly.
Why Up’s Moves Matter
Now we have a little bit of backstory, let’s jump into why I feel that what Up has done deserves recognition. It boils down to 1 point.
I can, as a consumer, do what I want with my data.
This means, that in practice I can go to the Up website, click “Get Personal Access Token” and then have access to my data.
The level of access Up provides is more than just downloading a CSV of my transaction history, I can set up integrations to alert me on being paid that run in real time. For a developer, Up provides first class access, and this will undoubtedly benefit them.
If you build it they will come
- A 1989 Movie I haven’t watched
How Does This Benefit Me?
If you’re not a developer, or not interested in breaking down your spending to a molecular level you might not be feeling the hype with this release. But, if you look at the historical benefits of open development then you’ll no doubt see that it can affect you.
If we look at why there’s so much innovation in technology, it’s because anyone with passion can jump in and build what they want.
Allowing people to develop on such a platform, without requiring large amounts of work and red tape will allow those with crazy ideas and passions for creating to build and design without dissuading them from their goals.
The Future
Up have made it clear, they don’t plan on stopping at access to data, so in future, we can look forward to increased innovation in this field.
The most interesting move, is allowing for 3rd parties to create custom applications that use consumer data, and it’s here where we’ll see our innovation. This feature is still in the works, according to Up’s site, however, when it comes out, I look forward to seeing where it goes.
In a more technical post I might dig into the API further, and look at what sort of interesting things we can build, such as automatically annoying my coworkers to pay for their lunch.
Author’s note: this blog post comes out in lieu of a separate planned one addressing the Meow attacks. Unfortunately, the prep for the post got delayed, if the attacks are still relevant next week, I’ll try and run the story then.