The impending introduction of the second Payment Services Directive (or PSD2 for short) is set to transform the way consumers manage their money.
Nothing ruins a night’s sleep quicker than money worries. Always a source of stress, concerns over finances are consistently found to be among the biggest causes of anxiety among UK adults, both young and old.
Earlier this year a study by price comparison website MoneySuperMarket found that a fifth of UK adults admit that their money worries have impacted on their health. And this is only set to worsen as forty-one per cent of UK adults believe their financial anxiety will increase over the next year. Our own research has also borne this out, with a study we conducted just last year finding that 44 per cent of 18 to 24-year olds are struggling to manage their money. Most disturbingly, nearly a quarter (24 per cent) of this demographic has already found themselves in debt.
And as finances become ever more complicated, something must be done or growing numbers of Brits will begin to face sleepless nights.
Enter Open Banking
However, help may be at hand: the impending introduction of the second Payment Services Directive (or PSD2 for short) is set to transform the way consumers manage their money.
By allowing third parties to gain the consent of consumers and access their financial data to provide new, innovative digital financial solutions, PSD2’s ‘Open Banking’ approach will remove the banking industry’s monopoly on customer financial data.
As a result, the consumer experience is set to be revolutionised, with data able to be shared across multiple digital financial platforms, allowing the development of a single digital platform through which everything – whether it be bank accounts, bills or debts – can be managed.
