Leveraging the latest open banking innovations, we have been working hard with open banking specialist, Plaid, to develop some enhanced functionality for our customers.
Aqilla has become an agent of Plaid Financial Ltd., an authorised payment institution regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (Firm Reference Number: 804718). Plaid provides users with regulated account information services through Aqilla Limited as its agent. This enables Aqilla users to grant access to their bank account statements directly, saving time when reconciling and organising their accounts.
Powering apps such as, Monzo, Curve and Cleo, Plaid’s API allows for instant and secure connections from a choice of 11,000+ financial institutions, offering users a simple way to link their bank accounts in the UK, EU, US and Canada, with our Aqilla software. Ultimately, this new functionality will remove the need to manually download financial statements and upload them into Aqilla.
Hugh Scantlebury, CEO and Co-Founder of Aqilla says:
“Enabling our customers to take advantage of open banking, is part of Aqilla’s continued drive for innovation and modernisation. Giving customers secure, direct access to their statements within our application is the first step on our open banking development roadmap.”
What is open banking?
Open banking is the concept of securely exchanging financial information between financial institutions and third-parties, in order for individuals and businesses to access services that benefit the way they manage their finances. Under the 2018 ‘Payment Services Directive’ (PSD2), approved third-party providers were given new rights to access users’ online financial account data, with the explicit authorisation of the user, in order to permit the sharing of data through dedicated APIs – such as our new Plaid integration.
These PSD2 measures are designed to open up the banking industry in order to promote the development and use of innovative online services, whilst ensuring consumer protection. Ultimately, PSD2 provides the legislative and regulatory foundation for open banking and other broader initiatives at a UK and European level relating to open access to payment accounts.
How do I implement this new functionality in Aqilla?
It’s simple, safe and secure to set-up the new Plaid API function, and easy enough for you to do yourself! For more information on how to get started, you can use our handy step-by-step guide here, visit the Help section of our resource notes, or reach out to your dedicated account manager.
Open banking regulations
Open banking is regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Both Aqilla and Plaid are approved and authorised by the FCA to deliver these services.
Being open banking and PSD2 compliant, allows us to collaborate with Plaid in delivering secure and reliable access to the UK and EU financial ecosystems, simplifying your bank statement processes. However, we would like to highlight that as an innovative movement, which is still growing worldwide, this new open banking functionality is not approved across all nations.
Despite this, the global open banking market generated 7.29 billion USD in 2018 alone, and is anticipated to produce 43.15 Billion USD by 2026. As a result of the expected global take off, open banking legislation and worldwide connections with financial institutions are constantly being developed. Therefore, managing and taking control of your global finances and bank accounts will become increasingly more simple and accessible, as we move further into the digital age of finance.Open banking is regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Both Aqilla and Plaid are approved and authorised by the FCA to deliver these services.
