The FCA will prioritise exploring how open finance can help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) improve access to credit and speed up loan applications.

Open finance will unlock the potential for people and businesses to share their financial data securely with a range of financial services providers, helping them access mortgages, investments, savings and pensions. This will give financial services firms a more complete picture of consumers’ and businesses’ finances, enabling more personalised and inclusive services, alongside more competitive pricing and stronger fraud protection. The FCA will prioritise exploring how open finance can help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) improve access to credit and speed up loan applications. It will also examine how open finance can help consumers manage and improve access to mortgages. David Geale, executive director for payments and digital finance at the FCA, said: 'Open finance has the potential to transform how people interact with financial services. By giving consumers and businesses more control over their own financial data, we can help them access credit, secure better deals and receive more customised support – while fuelling innovation, competition and supporting economic growth.' To progress plans as quickly as possible, the FCA will engage with industry, consumer groups and fellow regulators in 2026 to develop a range of practical open finance use cases. This will be done through the FCA's Smart Data Accelerator and PRISM (Prioritisation and Real-world Insights Selection Matrix) Taskforce. Adam Jackson, chief strategy officer at Innovate Finance, said: 'Just as open banking has sparked the growth of many UK fintechs, so open finance can power a new wave of innovation. By unlocking high-quality data in a way that secures consumer trust, open finance can be a foundation for widespread adoption of agentic AI. We support collaboration between industry and the FCA to deliver the roadmap at pace, enabling agreement on priority use cases and datasets, and appropriate regulatory action to open these up to competition and innovation.' The FCA will work with HM Treasury on options for a regulatory framework for open finance by the end of 2027. Firms will be supported to introduce open finance products sooner where they are already able to access data and appropriate permissions are in place. Notes to editors

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