A new study from Juniper Research has found that the value of global payment transactions facilitated by Open Banking will exceed $116 billion in 2026, from just under $4 billion in 2021.

Open banking is also known as “open bank data.” Open banking is a banking practice that provides third-party financial service providers open access to consumer banking, transaction, and other financial data from banks and non-bank financial institutions through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs).

This extraordinary growth rate of over 2,800% over the next five years will be driven by increasing user awareness of Open Banking features, supported by greater deployment within Europe, as vendors build on PSD2 (Second Payment Services Directive) APIs to deliver expanding services.

The research identified Open Banking-facilitated payments, where payments are made directly from bank accounts, as a growing threat to the dominance of cards within eCommerce. While card payments are well established, leveraging permissioned access to bank accounts can reduce fraud risks due to strict KYC (Know Your Customer) rules. The research recommends payment providers partner with Open Banking API providers now to reduce risks of disintermediation.

Europe Dominating Open Banking Payments

The new research, Open Banking: Key Opportunities, Vendor Strategies & Market Forecasts 2021‑2026, found that Europe will account for over 75% of Open Banking payments users globally in 2026; demonstrating the head start that PSD2 has given this market. However, the report recommends that API vendors look beyond regulatory minimum requirements to develop advanced use cases such as aggregation of additional products, including loans, credit cards and mortgages, as awareness builds.

Research co-author Damla Sat explained: “While PSD2 is a great starting point, it is not the end goal for Open Banking – supportive regulation must be a platform for much greater innovation. The race is on for vendors to build the most compelling capabilities for the future of Open Finance.”

US Market Opening Up

The research found that recent governmental support within the US will stimulate the growth of Open Banking, and the market will require payments players to develop new capabilities quickly to capitalise. As such, we anticipate acquisitions and partnerships to intensify, so vendors can meet these evolving requirements quickly, rather than developing their own solutions over time.