Open banking provider Yolt Technology Services (YTS) gets nod for the PSD2 license from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) enabling the firm to provide open banking services independently under its own license.
This new license will allow YTS to continue offering payment services including Payment Initiation Services (PIS) and Account Information Services (AIS) independently as opposed to under its shareholder ING.
The FCA license will also bolster YTS’ aim to fully realise the open banking potential, making it more mainstream so more customers are aware of its benefits.
The open banking firm has been providing PIS and AIS services to financial institutions across the UK and Europe under ING’s banking licence since it launched its first application programming interface in 2018.
PSD2 is a regulation for making electronic payment services more secure in Europe, increase the consumers’ protection and encourage banking services to adopt modern technologies.
One of the major roadblocks stopping widespread adoption of open banking has been data security concerns. To address this, the FCA regulatory approval process scrutinises areas such as compliance and IT security.
The firm claims its client base has crossed one billion API calls in 2020 and the license will ensure more businesses leverage open banking.
Given how more than 2.5 million Britons connect their accounts to third parties using open banking – up from 1 million in January 2020, it looks like an upward graph for the open banking firm in 2021, it said.
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