Open Banking Steps Up: Bud Announcement, Fiinu Launch and the Evolution of Open Finance

The evolution of open banking continues apace. In this episode of Data, Strategies and Trust, we bring together some of the concepts and approaches which are driving the data solution forward and making it an increasingly recognisable piece of the banking customer journey.

Hosting the show is TransUnion's Celso Nogueira. Celso joined TransUnion’s Brazil business in 2016 and has specialised in the development of open banking solutions. At the beginning of 2023 Celso moved to TransUnion’s UK business as our director of product management – open banking. Bringing a global perspective to the table, Celso talks with Sam Buckley, senior credit consultant – open banking, about the adoption of open banking in the UK, emerging use cases that we are seeing in the market and the recent announcement of TransUnion going into partnership with Bud, which is designed to drive greater financial inclusion.

In the UK, TransUnion was an early advocate of open banking, viewing the technology as a way to improve customer acquisition, customer experience and enable more informed and fairer lending decisions. Contributing to the discussion in this episode is Chris Sweeney, CEO of Fiinu, a consumer-focused fintech that secured its Financial Conduct Authority license in 2022. Chris' career to date has included being CEO at 118 118 Money and prior to that, CEO and Executive Director of Vanquis Bank. With over 20 years’ experience in consumer finance and retail banking, and a track record of driving businesses forward through strategic transformational change in the UK and overseas markets, he's helping to launch Fiinu this year.

Chris talks to Sam about crafting Fiinu’s consumer-facing proposition, how they are innovating by putting open banking at the beginning of the customer journey and the exciting ways it and open finance can help consumers access appropriate financial products.

Speakers:

• Celso Nogueira, director of product management – open banking, TransUnion in the UK
• Sam Buckley, senior credit consultant – open banking, TransUnion in the UK
• Chris Sweeney, CEO of Fiinu

Useful links:

• Celso quotes statistics around the increased consumer usage of open banking from the OBIE
• The consumer numbers that Chris (Fiinu) references are sourced from the FCA (33 million is from the FCA (19M arranged, 14M unarranged users)) and verified primary research conducted by Fiinu using bureau data (e.g. 16.5m is 14+2.5m as the unarranged market grew by 2.5M)
• Sustainable Growth for Lenders: A guide for reaching and retaining the next generation