OBIE supports FCA delay on scrapping open banking’s ‘90-day’ rule

The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) has supported the City watchdog’s recent decision to extend the deadline for ending the open banking 90-day authentication rule change

In November last year, the UK’s financial watchdog, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), shared plans to change the controversial 90-day reauthorisation rule for open banking.

The FCA said it would shift the requirement to reauthenticate consent every 90 days from the user to the third-party provider accessing the service.

This means that users will no longer have to go to their bank every 90 days to give permission for their data to be accessed.

Instead, the responsibility will now lie with the open banking providers.

While the regulatory change will still be introduced on 26 March, the FCA said this week that the deadline for adoption of the exemption would be 30 September 2022. 

The watchdog said it still expects third-party providers to be “technically ready to reconfirm customer consent” as soon as possible after 26 March.

It also said, however, that to minimise customer disruption it “will not object” if this does not happen, as long as authentication of customer consent is applied at least every 90 days until then.

“Implementing this change will help remove the barriers we identified to the continued growth of open banking and to support competition and innovation in the sector,” the FCA said.

Jack Wilson, head of public policy at open banking provider TrueLayer, also welcomed the decision.

“It's important to note that the FCA hasn't delayed the changes, they have given banks and Account Information Service Providers some flexibility on implementation to prevent consumers being adversely impacted by the changes to the 90-day requirements,” he told AltFi.

“We view the 30 September deadline as a helpful backstop by which time the banks should all have implemented the necessary changes to ensure consumers can continue to benefit from open banking-based services.”

Kat Cloud, UK policy lead at open banking provider Plaid, praised the end of the 90-day rule.

“We know that scrapping 90-day re-authorisation may seem like a small change on the surface, but it will have a deep impact on both the customer experience of financial services, and the adoption of Open Banking. That’s why the sooner the change is implemented, the better,” she told AltFi.

Cloud noted that the FCA’s decision not to monitor compliance with the rules until six months after introducing them reflects the different speeds at which banks might react to the change, while also calling for more clarity from the regulator. 

“Having a rolling timeline does mean that the industry doesn’t have to wait for the slowest in the cohort to make changes in order to start seeing progress for consumers,” she said. 

“We continue to work with banks, the regulator and the wider industry to implement the changes as quickly as possible, and would welcome the FCA making further clarification on its expectations of implementation.”