To date, the United States has taken a staunchly market-driven approach to open banking, and has been doing so for decades. But all that is about to change: the U.S. has now begun their own journey towards regulated open banking, with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) introducing a new regulation to solidify and protect Personal Financial Data Rights. In this episode, Eyal sits down with John Pitts, the Global Head of Policy at Plaid, the most well-known financial data...

The growth of open banking is historically driven by environmental factors. In environments marked by wealth inequality, or a lack of trust in traditional finance, open banking flourishes as a promising alternative. Conversely, in stable environments, it often stagnates, viewed as a needless risk. Canada, known for its risk aversion, exemplifies this trend. To open season 5 of Mr. Open Banking, Eyal sits down with Abraham Tachjian, Director of Digital Banking at PwC Canada and the former Open...

To make open banking work the way it is meant to, you need three major building blocks; data exchange, payments and digital ID. While many countries are working on these pieces, there is really only one place that has already built them all, into a fully-integrated, cohesive whole, at population scale: India. In the season four finale of Mr. Open Banking, Eyal sits down with Dr. Pramod Varma to discuss the uniquely successful digital transformation of India. Pramod is the Chief Architect...

Europe, widely considered the birthplace of open banking, has been on a journey to digitize their financial system for over 20 years. In this episode, we speak to a guest who has been on that road since the beginning, at the nexus of finance, technology and regulation. Dr. Ruth Wandöfer has been instrumental in shaping the future of finance in Europe, having positioned herself as one of the leading experts in the region. She is a  widely sought after speaker, writer and professor, with her...

What defines the value of a thing? Is it a question of utility, aesthetics, rarity, emotional connection, or a combination of all these aspects? When it comes to digital assets, this question becomes even more complex, as evidenced by the rise and subsequent fall of NFTs. Beyond just digital, The continued evolution of Web3 and DeFi has now set the physical world and the digital world on a collision course, changing perceptions of ownership, trade and value. To dig deeper into the...

Data fuels our digital lives, helping us make decisions, build relationships, and stay organized. To achieve these goals, we willingly share our personal data with various service providers, who give us search engines, social networks and e-commerce. But somewhere in the bargain, those providers encroached far beyond what the typical user understood. Our personal information, what makes us us, wasn’t just given, it was taken, in a way that makes it very hard to get back. To unpack this...

For most people, wallets are a staple accessory of their everyday lives. Yet today, the analog wallet is disappearing, to be replaced, like so many other things, by its digital twin. Digital wallets are now a reality and, like their physical predecessors, they will become an intrinsic part of our lives, so making sure they are built the right way is critical. To discuss the future of digital wallets, Eyal turns to Daniel Goldscheider, Founder of the OpenWallet Foundation, an organization...

Open banking is often cast as an antidote to the dominance of big banks. Given that its origins stem from the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, this perspective is not terribly surprising. But is this characterisation a fair one? Does open banking have to be a threat to big banks, or can it be turned into an opportunity? To answer these questions and more, we turn to Paul LaRusso. Paul is a business leader with over 20 years of experience in mobile financial services and technology. Paul is the...

It’s no secret that global banking is experiencing some macroeconomic headwinds. Bank failures and consolidations continue to spread, albeit slowly. The question then becomes: How do these negative trends influence the direction of open data? Marie has been studying open consented data sharing since 2016. Through her current role as Open Futurist at Raidiam, she helps bring together the best people with the best ideas, facilitating the right conversations, and promoting the benefits of open...

In the extended season finale of Mr. Open Banking, Eyal directly tackles the question of how open banking will change the way we interact with our money, in an attempt to build a vision of the open future. To do so, he breaks the problem down into the three core concepts at the heart of that claim: money, identity and open banking. When it comes to exploring the interplay between digital money and digital identity, one would be hard-pressed to find someone more knowledgeable than his guest,...

As the open banking movement continues to unfold, many people are asking an obvious but entirely valid question: can we trust open banking? In this episode, Eyal explores the concept of trust in open banking, and how we can learn to trust the data sharing ecosystem upon which open banking is being built. To inform the discussion, he sits down with Ralph Bragg, the Co-Founder and CTO of Raidiam, a company that’s on a mission to create the world’s smartest, most trustworthy data sharing...

When it comes to open banking globally, there are several factors that have acted as drivers for the movement, like competition, inclusion, stability and innovation. Although innovation takes a back seat in some regions, there is one place where it is firmly front-and-center: the Middle East. The Middle East and North Africa, a region known by the acronym MENA, has embarked on its own open banking journey, where Bahrain, Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Israel and Egypt have all...

Open banking definitions often differ from region to region. In the U.S., where open banking is decidedly market-driven, it is associated more with consent-driven data sharing, rather than standardization or regulation. Outside of regulatory constraints, U.S. open banking efforts are laser-focused on generating business value through true innovation. In this episode, Eyal sits down with Jane Barratt, the Chief Advocacy Officer at MX, one of the American leaders in account aggregation and a...

Open banking aims to introduce common, open, shared standards for the secure exchange of financial data. As a result, whether you bank with one bank or five, fintech or credit union, JPMC or PayPal, you can finally see all your accounts together, in one place - a concept known as account aggregation. In this episode, Eyal discusses this concept with Rolands Mesters, the CEO and Co-Founder of Nordigen, a European account aggregator who provides connectivity to thousands of banks, absolutely...

Introducing a disruptive movement like open banking into an already developed environment can be difficult. By contrast, introducing innovation where there is nothing to replace, often referred to as a “green field,” makes it possible to adopt the latest technology immediately, leapfrogging whatever came before. Africa, the ultimate green field, has been undergoing a quiet but steady technological renaissance over the past two decades, as it aims to leapfrog its peers. In this episode, Eyal...

Despite the doubts of skeptics, the open banking movement is here and it’s evolving quickly. Right now, over 50 regions around the world are in various stages of implementing open banking, while some are already moving into the next stage of the progression: open finance. In this episode, Eyal sits down with Amit Mallick, the Global Open Banking Practice Lead at Accenture, to discuss the threat posed by open banking, and how major players like big banks can respond as they adjust their...

While most of the financial sector is in the process of implementing open banking, it’s time to look beyond the horizon to see where this evolution is heading. As open banking standards expand to address more and more sectors of the economy, we are moving from open banking to open finance to open data. Open data will enable individuals to grant and share access to every digital transaction, health record, or energy bill to merchants so they can receive customized services that meet their...

When it comes to both FinTech and open banking, the UK is leading the charge globally. In this episode, Eyal sits down with one of the key figures behind the country’s leadership in financial innovation: Charlotte Crosswell, the newly appointed Chair and Trustee of the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), which is the organization responsible for bringing open banking to the UK and acting as a shining example for the rest of the world. During their discussion, Charlotte shares her...

The world of modern cryptocurrencies has evolved beyond just money, with currencies like Ethereum providing programmable open platforms to build the financial instruments of the future. These new tools aim to re-create and radically improve the centuries-old systems we have today, a movement that has come to be known as decentralized finance, or DeFi. As the head economist of Decentralized Protocols at ConsenSys, Lex Sokolin is an expert on DeFi, as well as crypto and FinTech in general. In...

China has been at the frontier of digital banking innovation since 2014, when their tech giants WeChat and AliPay began driving banks to play catch up with raised user expectations. Creating an entirely different financial ecosystem than what one might experience in North America or even Europe, China’s banking is completely digitally integrated, with cash a long lost piece of the past. In this episode, Eyal sits down with banking innovation expert and author of “Cashless - China’s Digital...

China has been at the frontier of digital banking innovation since 2014, when their tech giants WeChat and AliPay began driving banks to play catch up with raised user expectations. Creating an entirely different financial ecosystem than what one might experience in North America or even Europe, China’s banking is completely digitally integrated, with cash a long lost piece of the past. In this episode, Eyal sits down with banking innovation expert and author of “Cashless - China’s Digital...

There is little doubt that the birthplace of open banking is Europe. As a concept, open banking can be traced to much earlier times, but it was Europe who, in 2015, enacted the first open banking legislation in the form of the PSD2. Fast forward to today, and Europe is reaping the rewards of being the first mover. Thousands of banks and hundreds of fintechs are now leveraging open banking to communicate with each other using common, secure standards, driving an explosion of innovative...

The concept of digital disruption is no longer revolutionary for most businesses. In fact, digital transformation has become a prerequisite for ensuring you’re not left behind. Although banking is often perceived as a dated industry, banks are no strangers to digital disruption, dating back to the inception of ATMs. Yet disruption today is catapulting beyond familiar ground. The emergence and exponential development of the Internet has eliminated costs associated with running a bank and...

Open banking isn’t just about finance, it’s also about improving society. One of open banking’s key facets is its ability to create non-zero sum outcomes, meaning that one person’s gain doesn’t equal another person’s loss. Globally, we need to consider how best to harness this quality as we move towards a brighter, greener and more equitable future. In this episode, Eyal sits down with Faith Reynolds, champion of the open banking for good movement. Faith has been in open banking since the...