Open banking is becoming open finance in the framing Mastercard published this month. The same permission-based data sharing that let consumers share bank account data with a third party through a secure API now extends to pensions, insurance, investments, payroll, and credit. The bank is becoming one of several counterparties a consumer can grant access to, rather than the sole gatekeeper of the financial record.
Mastercard’s framing lands at a moment when the open banking rails are already running at scale. In the UK alone, payments made through open banking cleared 351 million transactions in 2025, up 57% on the year. The open finance expansion is the next layer on top of that plumbing.
Open Banking Versus Open Finance, and Why the Line Is Moving
Open banking is a regulatory and technical framework that lets a consumer authorize a third party to read their bank account data or initiate a payment from it, through an API the bank exposes. In the UK and Europe, that framework sits on top of the Revised Payment Services Directive, which the European Union adopted in 2015 as the regulatory bedrock for these markets.
Open finance extends the same permission model beyond the checking account. Mastercard’s framing is that open finance “extends this access to a broader range of financial data such as pensions, insurance, investments, and more,” and the list of additional data types covered is wider than the original open-banking pitch, as outlined in the open finance evolution Mastercard describes.
The result, Mastercard says, is “a broader ecosystem where consumers and businesses can benefit from highly personalized financial services, from smarter retirement planning to tailored insurance products.” What changes is not the consent mechanism. What changes is what the consumer is consenting to share.
- Investments and wealth portfolios
- Pensions and retirement accounts
- Insurance policies
- Payroll and employment data
- Credit and lending information
- Utilities and telecom data
The Three Numbers Mastercard Builds Its Case On
Mastercard’s published insights rest on three research numbers drawn from its work with the Financial Times’ Longitude team. First, 76% of consumers say they are ready to switch financial providers for better digital money management features. Second, 82% of consumers would consent to sharing their data if it simplified loan and mortgage applications, improved approval outcomes, or helped them secure better interest rates. Third, 75% of executives report direct revenue uplift from open finance initiatives.
Mastercard places the framing in its own voice, in insights published this month on the open finance shift. The argument runs through the company’s open finance integration platforms and APIs, the products Mastercard says will operationalize the move.
Open finance and open banking are global priorities for Mastercard. Through our open finance integration platforms and APIs, we’re helping expand access, drive greater consumer adoption, and ensure that individuals and businesses around the world can fully benefit from the opportunities open finance creates.
Jess Turner, Executive Vice President, Global Head of Open Finance and API at Mastercard, is the named voice behind the framing, in insights the company published this month. The framing is direct: open finance sits on the same shelf as the company’s card network inside Mastercard’s strategic priorities, not below it.
Five Drivers, and the One Mastercard Understates
Mastercard lays out five forces propelling the move from open banking to open finance: market competition and embedded finance, consumer demand for personalization, technology and API maturity, regulatory change, and trust and responsible data use. The first is the appearance of financial services inside non-financial apps, at checkout, inside travel platforms, across digital experiences, which forces providers to compete for richer permissioned data.
The second driver is the consumer expectation that financial products should feel as tailored as a streaming recommendation. The third is the maturation of secure, standardized APIs that lower the friction of moving data between trusted parties.
The fourth driver, regulatory change, is the one moving fastest in 2026. The frameworks Mastercard names are the EU’s PSD3, the Payment Services Regulation, the Financial Data Access regulation, and the UK Data Use and Access Act. Each is intended to extend consumer rights into open finance and “Smart Data,” strengthening data portability and encouraging cross-sector innovation.
The fifth driver is the one Mastercard leans on hardest, and the one with the most to prove. The framing underlines the same point in plainer language elsewhere: open finance requires “robust data privacy protections, strong cybersecurity measures, and clear governance to build trust and ensure responsible innovation.” When the consumer is the gatekeeper, the platforms that mediate consent become the ones whose failures carry the largest regulatory weight.
How Four Jurisdictions Are Approaching Open Finance
The shape of the regulatory push varies sharply by jurisdiction. In the UK and the European Union, open banking was driven by PSD2 in 2015 and is now being extended through PSD3, PSR, FiDA, and the UK’s Data Use and Access Act. Australia runs the same playbook under a different name. The Consumer Data Right, launched in banking in 2019 and now expanded to energy and non-bank lending, mandates secure data sharing across designated sectors, with the potential for telecommunications and other sectors to be included in the future.
The United States has stayed market-led. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized its data aggregation rule at the end of 2024, then announced it is reconsidering the rule at the end of 2025 in light of litigation, and is now reviewing its statutory authority and potential risks to data privacy and information security arising from its original rulemaking. The JPMorgan data access deals with US aggregators signed in mid-November 2025 are the other side of that coin: where the CFPB is retreating, the largest US bank is leaning into commercial data-access arrangements.
Brazil, by contrast, brought in a comprehensive open finance framework in 2021 through the Central Bank and the National Monetary Council, with standardized APIs and data protection built in from the start. Per the global open banking rollout across 95 jurisdictions, regulatory-led open banking is typically implemented around 22% faster than the market-led approach. With 95 jurisdictions now running some form of open banking initiative, the slow lane is not a small lane.
| Jurisdiction | Approach | Anchor framework | Year started | Coverage today |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK + EU | Regulation-led | PSD2 (2015); PSD3, PSR, FiDA, UK DUAA in flight | 2015 | Bank data, expanding into pensions, insurance, credit |
| Australia | Regulation-led | Consumer Data Right (CDR) | 2019 (banking) | Banking, energy, non-bank lending |
| United States | Market-led | CFPB Section 1033 (in flux) | 2017 non-binding principles | Voluntary bank-fintech data sharing |
| Brazil | Regulation-led | Banco Central do Brasil + CMN framework | 2021 | Open finance across regulated institutions |
The 2025 UK Numbers Show Open Banking at Scale
The most granular dataset for the open banking to open finance transition is the UK, where Open Banking Limited publishes monthly figures from the CMA9 brands. UK open banking scale, speed, and uptime in 2025 paint the clearest picture.
In 2025, payments through the open banking rails climbed to 351 million transactions, a 57% increase year on year. Sweeping variable recurring payments, the “me-to-me” transfers consumers set up to automate savings, nearly doubled, up 98%. Single domestic payments grew 52%. API calls rose to 24.0 billion, up 27% on 2024, with payment-initiation calls growing at double the rate of account-information calls. User connections reached 16.5 million user connections by December 2025, up from 12.1 million a year earlier, a 36% increase.
Average response times improved to 324 milliseconds, and weighted availability stayed above 99.50% across the year. Open Banking Limited’s read of those numbers is that open banking “is now a familiar part of everyday digital life.” The framing matters because the size of the underlying rail is what makes the open finance expansion plausible. You do not bolt a permissioned pension-data market onto a fragile system and expect consumer trust.
- 351 million open banking payments in the UK in 2025, up 57% year on year
- 16.5 million user connections by December 2025, up 36% year on year
- 24 billion API calls in 2025, up 27% on 2024
- Weighted availability above 99.50% every month in 2025
- Average API response time: 324 milliseconds
Forecasts Point to One Billion Open Finance Users by 2030
Mastercard cites a 2025 research report by Twimbit, in Mastercard’s open finance consumer guide, that projects the global open finance framework will reach 1 billion users by 2030. A separate forecast drawn from a broader open-banking tally, cited by J.P. Morgan, predicts 645 million total open banking users by 2029, up from 183 million in 2025.
The two numbers are not the same metric on the same definition, but the direction is consistent. The Deutsche Bank and Mastercard partnership to push account-to-account payments across Europe, with app-to-app redirection and biometric authentication on Mastercard’s open-banking connectivity, is one of the early commercial bets that the wider data aperture will be the one consumers pay through, not just the one they share data into. The Deutsche Bank Mastercard European A2A deal is an early marker.
Where the Bet Could Break
The Mastercard framing is built on consent, but consent frameworks have a record of failing at the consent layer itself, at the screen where a consumer taps “allow” without reading the data-sharing terms. The framing captures the countervailing risk in plainer language elsewhere, calling for “robust data privacy protections, strong cybersecurity measures, and clear governance.” The platforms that wire up consent are the ones whose failures will carry the largest regulatory weight.
The bigger constraint is regulatory stutter. In the US, the CFPB’s section 1033 rule is in retreat, and the largest US bank’s commercial data-access arrangements are an attempt to set the rules in product form rather than wait for them in rule form.
Globally, just seven percent of e-commerce transactions go through account-to-account rails today. The shift is real. The work of wiring it up safely has barely begun.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between open banking and open finance?
Open banking is the framework that lets a consumer authorize a third party to read their bank account data or initiate a payment from it, through a secure API the bank exposes. Open finance extends that permission model beyond the checking account to pensions, insurance, investments, payroll, credit information, and utility and telecom data, per Mastercard’s June 2026 framing.
Is open finance regulated?
It depends on the jurisdiction. The UK and the EU are extending the PSD2 framework through PSD3, the Payment Services Regulation, the Financial Data Access regulation, and the UK Data Use and Access Act. Australia uses the Consumer Data Right, launched in banking in 2019. The United States has stayed market-led, with the CFPB’s data aggregation rule finalized at the end of 2024 and now under review at the end of 2025.
How many people use open banking today?
The UK alone recorded 16.5 million user connections by December 2025, up 36% from a year earlier, according to Open Banking Limited. Globally, J.P. Morgan cites a forecast of 645 million total open banking users by 2029, up from 183 million in 2025. Mastercard cites a 2025 Twimbit report projecting 1 billion users of the broader open finance framework by 2030.
Which countries are leading the move to open finance?
The regulatory-led pack is the UK, the EU, Australia, and Brazil, which introduced its open finance framework through the Central Bank and the National Monetary Council in 2021. The United States is the largest market-led example, and 95 jurisdictions worldwide have now adopted some form of open banking initiative, according to J.P. Morgan.
What data does open finance unlock that open banking did not?
Mastercard’s June 2026 list names investments and wealth portfolios, pensions and retirement accounts, insurance policies, payroll and employment data, credit and lending information, and utilities and telecom data. Open banking, by contrast, stayed focused on account balances, transactions, and payment initiation.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Open finance involves the sharing of personal financial data through permissioned APIs, and readers should consult a qualified financial professional before acting on any product or service described here. Figures cited are accurate as of publication, June 29, 2026.
