Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
UK Open Banking Passes One Billion Payments
July 28, 2026 | NCFA Market Activity | Open Banking Open Finance And Data Sharing, Payments And Money Movement, Competition And Market Structure
Open Banking Payments At Operating Scale
On July 28, 2026, Credit Connect reported that UK open banking passed one billion cumulative payments and 100 billion cumulative API calls across the CMA9 banks. Both totals cover more than eight years of activity.
The report directly quotes Open Banking Limited CEO Henk Van Hulle. A matching announcement wasn't available in Open Banking Limited's newsroom when this article was prepared, so the cumulative totals are attributed to Credit Connect.
Open Banking Limited's June performance data also shows what the system's baseline is for a single month. It recorded 2.8055 billion successful API calls, a 99.50% success rate and an average response time of 349 milliseconds. Credit Connect reported that API use rose 4.4% from May and response time improved by 50 milliseconds.
June also produced 40.16 million successful open banking payment initiations. Single domestic payments declined 1.2%, while Variable Recurring Payments increased 6.7%.
One Billion Payments Changes The UK Benchmark
The cumulative milestone gets attention, but the monthly numbers say more about the current market. Banks are processing billions of API requests while third party providers initiate more than 40 million payments a month. Open banking now supports regular payment activity alongside account information services.
The figures describe different parts of the system. An API call is a request between an authorized provider and a bank. A payment is a successful payment initiation. Open Banking Limited also reports more than 19 million active user connections, but those connections aren't deduplicated individuals. The same customer may be counted through more than one provider or brand.
Payment use has been building quickly. The FCA's 2025 open banking progress report recorded 53% year over year growth in open banking payments. Variable Recurring Payments accounted for 16% of open banking transactions at that point.
The UK now has a functioning base for account to account payments. Banks supply the required APIs, fintechs build payment services and merchants decide whether the cost and customer experience compare favourably with cards and Direct Debit.
UKPI Puts Pricing And Rules Around Commercial VRP
Variable Recurring Payments are relatively new to the UK market. UK open banking update tracked approximately 3.7 million VRP transactions in March 2025, along with more than 240 regulated third party providers. It also cited a UK Finance estimate that recurring payments could save merchants approximately £1.5 billion a year.
The July numbers show continued use while the industry develops commercial VRP beyond transfers between a customer's own accounts. Customers can authorize businesses to initiate repeat payments within agreed limits without approving every transaction separately.
On June 2, 2026, the FCA supported the launch of the UK Payments Initiative, an industry operated scheme for commercial Variable Recurring Payments. The FCA expects other commercial schemes to compete with it.
The initiative has substantial industry backing. In 2025, 31 participating firms, including banks, fintechs and payment providers, agreed to fund the initial operator. Proposed uses cover utilities, rail, government agencies, charities and regulated financial services.
The remaining question is how the economics are divided. Banks incur costs to provide premium APIs, while payment providers need pricing low enough to compete for merchants. In January 2026, the FCA and Payment Systems Regulator said they wouldn't prioritize a competition investigation into the proposed centralized access fee model at that stage.
The one billion payment total gives the industry a larger customer base on which to build. It doesn't determine who captures the revenue. Banks may charge for premium access, payment firms may win merchant distribution and software platforms may package recurring payments into billing, treasury and account management products.
The UK Is Rebuilding Governance Around Scale
The original open banking system was built around a market competition order applied to nine large banks. Commercial schemes now bring more providers, products, pricing agreements and customer relationships into the system.
The FCA expects a new Future Entity to set common API standards, monitor performance, oversee certification and support commercial schemes. Its role will influence whether payment providers receive consistent access across participating banks.
The UK payments playbook connects commercial VRP delivery with retail payment rules, Faster Payments improvements and the future regulatory structure for open banking.
Reliability is already measurable. June's weighted API availability reached 99.80%, while successful calls reached 99.50%. Those averages are interesting, although a customer experiences the individual bank connection used for a particular service or payment.
Fraud still remains part of the operating model. Open Banking Limited's fraud monitor found that roughly one in 6,000 open banking payments was fraudulent in 2025, compared with one in 2,500 across the wider payments industry. Authorized push payment fraud accounted for more than two thirds of reported open banking fraud cases.
The direct Canadian relevance is the connection between data access and payments. Canada is developing consumer driven banking, payment system participation and future write access through separate rules and institutions. The UK experience shows where those files eventually meet through commercial pricing, recurring payment permissions, technical standards, liability and scheme governance.
Talking Point
As commercial VRP expands, who should control access pricing and liability when banks, fintechs and merchants all depend on the same connection?
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