Will Open Banking trigger the API of Me?

Chris Wood@sensiblewood

What is the “API of Me”?

The access point for your Personal Data Store

Me2B== Establishing the relationship between you and the

businesses you engage with on your terms

== Secure, tailored & curated experience vs. traditional loudhailer approach

A Personal Data Store

•The place where you aggregate & take control of your data & offer it to satisfy your needs

•Centralized or federated

Monetary

Social

Health

Intentions

Repeats

Location & Transport

Habitual

Document Management

Example - Meeco• Series of curated

views - ‘tiles’• Makes your data

relevant to you (and your family, pets, etc.)

• Helps you understand your data based on your wants & needs

Example - Mydex

• Allows consumers to securely share their data

• Series of foci dependent on what your interest

• Note the focus on consumercontrol

Example - Trunomi

• Approach is federation vs centralisation

• Manage data in situ

• Work on behalf of business to benefit of the consumer

Can a PDS access all our data (via APIs?)

In some areas YESe.g. Social

In others NOe.g. Banking

So might Open Banking be important?Open Banking + PDS = Source of meaningful data

Rich personal data source: monetary, habits, intentions, etc.

Potential for easy data acquisition with a framework for security

== Backbone for secure access

Prospects for Open Banking & the API of Me?

Open Banking unlikely to happen organically as a “pure” initiativeRegulation may provide the motivation

Vendors will sell the dream - CTOs looking for a dream catcher

PSD2: Possibility of technical fragmentationLocal initiatives and schemes: CMA (UK), FinTS (Germany), etc

The API of Me without Open Banking?

Usual suspects:

• Screen scraping• Manual updates (CSV, etc.)

• Aggregators – potential to become de facto standard

== Might be more pain but not unachievable

Round Up

The API of Me will happen without Open BankingOpen Banking “done right” will definitely accelerate

Regulation may affect how Open Banking implemented

Growth of the API of Me likely to be slower without it