How Open Finance can Benefit Enterprises

From a regulatory standpoint, Open Finance represents a chance to shape an industry standard that fosters competition, innovation, and financial stability, while also safeguarding consumer interests and data privacy. 

For financial institutions, on the other hand, Open Finance can break down the barriers that have traditionally existed in the sector. It paves the way for a more collaborative and interconnected financial ecosystem. Just like with Open Banking, this approach enables financial institutions to enhance their service offerings and positions them to more effectively compete with emerging fintech solutions.

In an era where technology trends move fast and greatly influence the competitive landscape, Open Finance is becoming a strategic priority for institutions seeking to maintain and/or improve their position in the market.

But the importance of adopting Open Banking APIs has, until now, been felt mainly by retail banks. Existing Open Finance regulations focus on consumer data, thus these new services are tailored to the needs of individuals.

However, there are significant opportunities for institutions catering to enterprises, especially in terms of providing competitive money management tools to add value to existing services. We will now take a closer look at some of these in more detail.

The digital revolution offers unprecedented flexibility, enabling institutions to craft tailored solutions for their clients. Let’s explore what enterprise solutions Open Finance can unlock:

Treasury and Payments Management: Innovative treasury management tools can aggregate an organisation’s entire financial picture in real-time, offering insights into cash flow, payables, and receivables, and providing tools to simplify the process of online payments. In addition, businesses can get real-time notifications of incoming payments, consolidate their revenue streams, and even automate payouts to vendors or refunds to customers.

Financing and Loans: Open Finance helps lenders obtain a more complete view of an applicant’s financial situation, providing a clearer picture than traditional scoring methods. Instead of relying solely on credit scores, lenders can view an applicant’s spending habits, regular deposits, existing financial commitments, etc. This gives a better idea of the company’s creditworthiness, potentially helping those with limited credit histories.

Invoice Automation: Beyond just creating invoices, these platforms can automatically reconcile incoming payments against issued invoices, reducing manual accounting work. An Open Finance integration means that when a B2B client makes a payment for an invoice, the platform can immediately mark it as paid, update financial records, and even send payment confirmations.

KYC and Fraud Prevention: KYC processes are crucial to verify the identity of clients and assess the potential risks of illegal intentions. Open Finance accelerates this process and increases its accuracy. By cross-referencing banking details with the information provided by a user, discrepancies can be almost immediately flagged. This not only speeds up the verification process but also acts as an additional layer of fraud detection.

Expense Management and Accounting: Integrating banking data means these tools can automatically categorize and record expenditures, making financial reports more accurate and up-to-date. With every business transaction that takes place, these tools can immediately classify and record it into appropriate expense categories, aiding in budgeting and providing financial insights.

These solutions, from treasury management to fraud prevention, reflect not only the capabilities of the digital age, but also the need to adapt to emerging trends to provide a more comprehensive and personalised service. In an industry as dynamic and regulated as financial services, adaptability and anticipation are key. Take a look at how banks and other FIs can anticipate this change:

Enhance organisational culture and training: All levels of the organisation should understand the principles and objectives of Open Finance. Organisation-wide adoption of the Open Finance vision and ongoing training of teams are crucial to achieving innovation and improving the customer experience.

Develop strategic partnerships: Consider partnerships with technology companies and fintechs. By partnering with them, Banks and FIs can take advantage of innovative solutions without necessarily developing them from scratch in-house.

Enhance customer engagement: Understanding their needs and expectations will help define the right strategies. After all, Open Banking aims to offer them better solutions and a more integrated experience.

Lobbying and active participation with regulators: It is essential to be in constant dialogue with the financial regulator. Actively collaborating in the formation of these regulations can ensure a framework that benefits both financial institutions and consumers.

Invest in technology infrastructure: The adoption of standardised and secure APIs will be essential. Banks will need robust, scalable and secure systems that allow integration with third parties.

As we look towards the future, the adoption and integration of Open Finance should be a deliberate and well-considered strategy, embedded within the broader digital transformation agenda of every forward-thinking institution. This is not merely about keeping pace with industry changes; it is about actively shaping the future of financial services, and redefining the relationship between banks, customers, and the broader financial ecosystem.

TESOBE is a trusted expert for Banks and Financial Institutions around the world, having worked on Open Finance projects in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

We support our clients in crafting strategies that can improve technological capabilities while introducing new business opportunities. For more information, drop us a message at contact@openbankproject.com.