Author: Charitarth Sindhu, Fractional Business & AI Workflow Consultant
Open banking is a simple idea. You should be able to share your own financial data with whoever you choose. Want a budgeting app to see your transactions? A lender to check your real income instead of just your credit score? That should be your call, not your bank’s.
More than 470 million people worldwide now use services built on this idea. The global market sits around $30 billion. But here’s the thing: depending on where you live, open banking is either transforming your financial life or it barely exists.
The countries getting it right
Brazil is the standout. The central bank didn’t just open up bank accounts. It opened up insurance, pensions, investments, and foreign exchange data too. Over 70 million Brazilians have active connections, and the system processed 102 billion data requests in 2024 alone. Paired with Pix (the country’s instant payment system that now handles more transactions than credit and debit cards combined), Brazil has built something no other country has matched. Credit approvals for underserved borrowers jumped 25% because lenders can now see real financial behaviour, not just a credit score.
The UK is the other clear leader. One in three British adults uses open banking, most without even knowing it. The system handled 24 billion data calls in 2025, and open banking now powers 1 in every 13 fast payments in the country. New legislation passed in 2025 is pushing things further, extending data sharing rights beyond banking into energy, telecoms, and transport.
India has taken a different approach, building its Account Aggregator framework as part of a bigger digital infrastructure push. Over 250 million users have linked accounts, and the system has helped disburse roughly $19 billion in loans. It’s growing fast.
South Korea rounds out the top tier. Its MyData system signed up 55 million users within its first year. That’s about two-thirds of the adult population.
The countries struggling
Then there’s the United States. The previous administration published a rule in November 2024 that would have required banks to share customer data with authorised third parties. The current administration gutted it. The consumer protection agency that wrote the rule argued in court against its own regulation, calling it an overreach. A federal judge blocked enforcement. The rulemaking process has been reopened from scratch, and the agency itself faces a funding crisis.
The US market still functions, but only through private deals. Plaid connects to over 11,000 banks and handles about half of all US bank account connections. JPMorgan has negotiated paid data-sharing agreements. But there’s no legal requirement for banks to participate, no standardised consumer protections, and no clear timeline for when (or if) that changes.
Europe presents a mixed picture. The EU passed its open banking law (PSD2) back in 2018, but left each country to implement it differently and didn’t set technical standards. The result: 537 authorised providers operating across a patchwork of national rules, with wildly different API quality from bank to bank. Sweden and the Netherlands lead. Portugal had no domestic providers registered as late as 2024. A major overhaul (PSD3) was agreed in late 2025 and should fix many of these problems, but compliance won’t be required until 2027 or 2028.
Australia launched its Consumer Data Right with big ambitions but has seen low uptake. Technical complexity and limited consumer awareness have held it back.
Why the gap matters
The countries leading in open banking share a few traits. They set clear technical standards instead of leaving it to the market. They rolled out in phases so everyone could keep up. And they aligned the incentives so banks had reasons to invest in good infrastructure rather than dragging their feet.
The countries lagging tend to have one or more of these problems: political opposition (the US), regulatory fragmentation (the EU), or overly complex implementations that confuse consumers (Australia).
This gap has real consequences. In countries with mature open banking, consumers get better loan rates, faster approvals, cheaper payments, and more control over their financial lives. In countries without it, banks still control who sees your data, and switching providers remains painful.
What’s next
A few things to watch in 2026. The UK is launching commercial “variable recurring payments” that let businesses collect flexible amounts directly from bank accounts, potentially replacing card payments for things like utilities and subscriptions. Brazil is rolling out automatic recurring payments through Pix. Canada just tabled legislation to mandate open banking with penalties up to $10 million for non-compliance. The EU’s new rules will start taking shape.
The big wildcard is artificial intelligence. When AI tools can access your real-time financial data (with your permission), they can optimise your spending, find you better deals, and flag problems before they become expensive. That future is already arriving in Brazil and the UK. For the rest of the world, it depends on whether regulators and politicians decide your financial data belongs to you or to your bank.