Why are we doing this?

Open banking has the potential to transform financial services, opening up the UK banking industry by giving people control over their financial data. This will help consumers to access innovative products tailored to them and ensure that they benefit from the best deals on the market.

Since it launched in 2018, open banking technology has opened the door for new fintech innovators to create cutting-edge tools for everything from budgeting, debt management, switching banks, automating savings, and much more.

This wave of innovation holds particular promise for financially excluded individuals, including:

• the 1.5 million UK consumers who don’t have a bank account
• the 1 million plus consumers every year who need debt advice
• the 50 per cent of consumers who are not confident making financial decisions.

What are we doing?

The Open Up Challenge 2020 is designed and timed to boost consumer awareness and adoption of open banking-enabled products by:

• providing 12 to 15 finalist teams with £50k each, growing to as much as £300k each for three to four winning teams
• promoting their products in a national digital awareness campaign
• offering expert non-financial support so they can accelerate their solutions.

What are we looking for?

We are seeking products and apps that use open banking to help people better manage their money through more transparent, accessible and fair products.

This includes:

• personal current account comparison that supports ‘unbundling’ and easy switching to a different account provider
• helping people use an overdraft provider that is not their bank and avoid expensive, unexpected fees (‘unbundling’ of overdrafts from personal current accounts)
• automated/’robo’ financial management to help build savings buffers and manage debt
• widening access to affordable credit including alternative lending options and innovations in credit scoring
• boosting earnings on savings, including high balance sweeping so people earn interest on their credit balance
• micro-payments towards savings.

Social impact is important to us, which is why we have a special focus on groundbreaking apps and products that serve those who are financially excluded.

The Open Up Challenge 2020 will run from July 2019 to July 2020. Applications closed on 2 October 2019.

Open Up 2020 is run by Nesta Challenges and backed by the Open Banking Implementation Entity as part of the UK's world-leading open banking agenda