Fintech entrepreneur Michael Zetser explains that open banking can transform financial services, as it empowers users to share their transactional details with third parties. This can pave the way for a huge number of innovative apps and use-cases.
As a matter of fact, open banking is changing the way lenders decide risks and is providing new tools to consumers for managing and budgeting their finances. It is not surprising that the number of open banking platforms in the market has exploded, but there are some that have managed to distinguish themselves from the crowd.
Some of the top platforms that you can find in the fintech industry in 2023 are mentioned below.
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Plaid
A data network and payments platform, Plaid has been designed to assist companies in using one integration to take advantage of open banking. More than 12,000 financial institutions are supported by Plaid and has made it easier for customers to connect third-party fintech services with their financial accounts.
The platform has more than 8,000 financial services built-in and it can be used for unlocking the power of open banking. With a workforce comprising of more than 1,000 employees, the company has six offices in different parts of the world.
Tink
More than 300 banks and fintech companies are using Tink for engaging with the open banking experience, as it is capable of offering more than 6,000 integrations. Michael Zetser points out that some of the big names in the financial industry, such as American Express, Stripe, PayPal and ABN Amro are using Tink for this purpose.
Its open banking services can be quite useful for increasing operational efficiency and attracting new customers. One advantage of Tink is that it is highly scalable and its connections are reliable and strong, as they can handle more than 1 billion API calls in a month, while offering 99% uptime. The company has its headquarters in Sweden, Stockholm and was established in 2012.
Stripe
The expertise and technology of the multi-billion dollar fintech based in Silicon Valley is leveraged by Stripe Connect for providing businesses with an easy and fast way of integrating payments into their marketplace or platform. The APIs that Stripe offers can assist its clients in building and scaling end-to-end payments experiences, while helping them establish new revenue streams through diversifications.
Therefore, it is not surprising that this particular open banking platform is currently being used by some top names like Shopify, OpenTable, WooCommerce and Salesforce. It is available in more than 35 regions and markets and supports 14 languages.
Token
According to Michael Zetser, Token is using open banking for building an A2A payments infrastructure. Account-to-account (A2A) transactions involve clients logging into their online bank accounts and making payments directly at the point of sale.
This is done via Token’s API instead of traditional methods, such as credit cards, which require a middleman. Token is able to offer an affordable and instantaneous payment method and is already collaborating with more than 16 banks in Europe.
TrueLayer
Based in London, TrueLayer represents itself as the leading open banking payments network in Europe and can deliver meaningful financial experiences by connecting people, banks and brands. With its technology solutions, fintechs and money apps are able to move their funds more quickly.
Crypto companies can also use TrueLayer for devising smoother off-ramps and on-ramps between decentralized finance (DeFi) and fiat, while ecommerce merchants can also use it for boosting loyalty and driving sales. OakNorth, Coinbase, Revolut, Nutmeg and FreeTrade are some of the companies that are using TrueLayer.
Salt Edge
With its headquarters in Canada, Salt Edge offers an open banking API solution that enables users to provide their clients with smarter digital services. According to Michael Zetser, five of the prominent use-cases of Salt Edge include digital accounting, business finance management and automation, SME lending, treasury management, credit decision-making and business banking.
The company is currently being headed by Garri Galanter who took the job in 2022, but the business veteran had been advising the company since 2013.
Bud Financial
Launched in 2015, Bud Financial started off as an educational platform, but it is now working towards simplifying the process of financial decision-making. It has developed a data intelligence platform for this purpose that can help customers and financial institutions in understanding their financial situation in a better way.
It accomplishes this goal by providing access to transactional data that can be used for obtaining in-depth customer insights. The company is based in four countries and its workforce is 100 strong. Based in London, the company records about 300 million transactions in a month.
As fintech expert Micahel Zetser says, these are the top open banking platforms that are making waves in the financial technology sector this year and are expected to further revolutionize businesses and companies that are operating in it.