Lloyds picks up AJ Bell as an Open Banking client

Lloyds' open banking platform FundBy Bank technology has picked up a new client, AJ Bell.

The partnership will give investors the option of funding their investment accounts directly from their bank accounts, without using card providers such as Mastercard or Visa as an intermediary.

The companies claim that there is no additional need to input registration or payment details, or to perform a separate online login.

Consumers will instead be able to drop funds into AJ Bell’s consumer investment offering Youinvest, with funds being transferred via Faster Payments “almost instantly” into their account with the online brokerage.

The solution, FundBy Bank, was developed by Lloyds in partnership with US payments technology firm Bottomline.

The wealth management space could soon be seeing more integrations with Open Banking.

Open banking platform TrueLayer has entered into a partnership with wealth management-focused SaaS platform WealthOS to bring in-app payments to the account funding process with the help of Open Banking.

The news comes as the open banking momentum may be plateauing, in the least some senses of the word. 

No new regulated third-party providers (TPPs) have joined the open banking ecosystem since September 2021, according to research by Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE).

There are currently around 126 TPPS in the UK, fintechs and open banking providers that are directly regulated by the FCA, including Plaid,TrueLayer,Moneybox,Revolut and Funding Options.