Panel discussion on open banking

With the aim of keeping Slovenia at the heart of global trends in advanced financial services, Banka Slovenije organized a brief panel discussion entitled Open banking: responding to the needs of contemporary payment service users.

Consumers’ rising demands for advanced financial services, a better user experience, and increased control of their own data are dictating the pace of change in the digitalisation of payments. The term “open banking” covers banking practices that use software interfaces to grant other payment service providers access to consumers’ financial data.

Practically all stakeholders in the European payments market are being affected by change. Banks are now putting software interfaces in place to grant other payment service providers access to data on the payment accounts of their customers. Fintech firms have identified new business opportunities in the payment services segment that lie in the use of financial data. In their role as account holders, consumers are provided with expanded, simpler and more effective access to financial services. There could also be benefits for merchants as users of new payment services. Moreover, open banking is also a challenge to regulators to encourage the development of payment services in these new circumstances, thereby ensuring a secure and competitive environment, where consumer protection is a particular challenge.

Banka Slovenije plays a number of roles in connection with payment systems: not only is it the regulator and supervisor, it is also a catalyst and guide for the activities of market participants. On the National Payments Council, which it has led since 2013, it acts as a liaison between the provider and user sides of the payment services market, and guides its development in line with Eurosystem policy, where open banking is one of the key areas of current focus.

The main purpose of the Open banking: responding to the needs of contemporary payment service users event was to lead discussion of various aspects of the development of open banking, and unresolved issues, and to encourage the activities of market participants, with the aim of improving competition and promoting the development of the market in payments and payment services.

After opening remarks by Simon Anko, director of the payment and settlement systems department at Banka Slovenije and president of the National Payments Council, and Holger Neuhaus, representative of the ECB, the discussion moved to the panel, consisting of:

• Simon Anko, director of the payment and settlement systems department at Banka Slovenije, who examined open banking from the perspective of the central bank’s role as a catalyst of the activities of market participants and as the supervisor of payment service providers;
• Matjaž Čadež, founder of MBILLS d.o.o., who as a representative of a non-bank payment service provider gave his views of the evolution of payment services;
• Aleksander Kurtevski, director of Bankart d.o.o., who examined the challenges in the technological development of support for open banking services;
• Nevenka Šubelj, of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce, former head of the treasury department at Petrol d.d., who discussed the impact of open banking on businesses in the trade sector and on commerce;
• Marko Tretnjak, head of the financial services department at the Consumer Association of Slovenia, who shared his views of open banking from the perspective of consumer interests;
• Stanislava Zadravec Caprirolo, director of the Bank Association of Slovenia, who examined a host of challenges facing banks and savings banks in connection with regulatory changes within the framework of open banking.

Open Banking – presentation by Holger Neuhaus (ECB)