Revolut steals march on its rivals with launch of open banking feature

FINTECH Revolut has launched open banking for its million retail and business customers in Ireland.

The new open banking feature allows Revolut retail customers to connect their AIB, Permanent TSB, Ulster Bank and Bank of Ireland bank accounts to Revolut.

This will make it possible to see all of their balances and transactions in one single app.

The move is further evidence of fintechs stealing a march on conventional banks which have been slow to digitalise.

Open banking was first introduced as a concept when the European Union decided the banking industry needed greater competition and wanted to expand the opportunities offered to fintechs.

Since the introduction of the EU’s second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in January 2018, open banking is said to have revolutionised the way large numbers of Europeans manage their finances and use their data.

Open banking is a banking practice which provides third-party financial service providers open access to consumer banking, transaction and other financial data from banks and non-bank financial institutions.

Revolut’s move will mean its account holders will be able to track their spending and set budgeting controls for their Revolut and Irish bank accounts.

Once a customer has added their chosen bank details, the process is automatic and secure, the fintech insisted.

Joshua Fernandes, head of open banking at Revolut, said: “With the roll-out of our open banking feature, our retail and business customers in Ireland can now view and manage multiple Irish bank accounts, enabling them to interpret their day-to-day spending across all of their accounts.”

Revolut claims to have doubled the number of account holders in this country in Ireland over the past six months.