This weekend saw the launch of the ‘Open Banking’, a term not many of us will have come across before. Open Banking requires banks to share information about our financial records with authorised 3rd parties with the aim of allowing us greater freedom and flexibility in managing our finances.
This might set alarm bells ringing due to the potential for fraud if information is disclosed incorrectly or to spurious unregulated companies, but the key term here is ‘authorised’. No information can be shared without your explicit permission and the third party firm must be appropriately authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Imagine a single view of your personal accounts and the ability to access aggregated data, insights and trends as well as highly personalised services. This is some way off at the moment, and no doubt there will be some teething troubles along the way, but long term we believe this sharing of information will become invaluable in effective money management.
We often spend time with clients assessing their outgoings and identifying where they are spending their money. Not only is budgeting an essential first step in taking control of your finances and building a financial plan, it can also give fascinating insights in to what you truly value.
To have aggregated account information available at a touch of a button could drive efficiencies and enable us to become better connected with our personal finances – helping us to think about what we are spending your money on and why.
While we aim to integrate open banking solutions in to our service in the future, it’s early days and for now our expenditure analysis worksheet provides a ‘low tech’ method of assessing your regular outgoings and taking control of your personal finances.