Open Banking as a Revenue Engine: What Financial Leaders Need to Know

Open banking is one of the hottest topics in finance, yet most conversations around it still revolve around regulation. Too often, it’s seen purely as a compliance challenge rather than an opportunity for growth. But does it have to be this way? 

Numbers suggest otherwise. As of March 2025, 13.3 million individuals and small businesses in the UK are actively using open banking services - a 40% jump from last year. Meanwhile, in the US, the landscape is more complex - following a series of developments, the CFPB has paused enforcement of Section 1033 and is now in the process of rewriting the rule in response to legal challenges.  

Yet, innovation hasn’t slowed down. Fintechs continue to build, users continue to adopt, and open banking remains at the heart of it all. Hence, to truly capture the momentum, it’s time to stop treating it as a compliance checkbox and start recognizing it as a catalyst for revenue and growth. 

What Are The Most Common Pitfalls in Open Banking Growth 

Open banking has the reach, the users, and the traction and as a financial leader, it’s yours to catch it. So why hasn’t it become a business driver yet? Here’s what might be standing in the way: 

• APIs are built then forgotten. They are often launched for compliance purposes and then left untouched. The regulatory goal is met, but the initiative rarely develops into something that creates lasting value. 
• Lack of ownership. When no team is clearly responsible for monetization, open banking risks sitting between business and technology, with neither driving it forward. 
• The market feels the same. With many open banking providers offering similar account aggregation and payment services, it can be difficult to stand out. As solutions start to look alike, the pressure to find a distinctive angle increases. 
• Strategy and executions are not aligned. Technology teams focus solely on the open banking integrations, while business leaders may not define clear success measures. This gap keeps open banking in a supporting role rather than unlocking its potential as a growth driver. 

What You Stand to Gain  

Despite these challenges, the benefits are hard to ignore, and the pace of growth speaks for itself. In April 2025, Plaid, which connects bank accounts with fintech apps, raised $575 million at a $6.1 billion valuation - proof of investor confidence in API-first business models. Around the same time, Yavrio, a UK-based ERP banking integration platform, achieved full connectivity with all five major U.S. banks, turning them into active data providers for external platforms.  

From a strategic angle, the upside of open banking clearly outweighs the obstacles:  

• Partnerships with fintechs: Working with fintechs gives banks access to proven technologies and user experiences, enabling faster launches, lower costs, and easier experimentation. When managed well, these collaborations create ecosystems where banks remain central while drawing on the agility of more innovative players. 

• Reach new users: Open banking also makes it possible to reach customers in new contexts. By embedding services into budgeting apps, e-commerce platforms, or digital marketplaces, banks can connect with clients at the very moments when financial choices are made - something traditional channels increasingly struggle to achieve. 

• Diversify revenue streams: With margins from lending and payments under pressure, banks have an opportunity to create new lines of income through open banking. Banks can commercialize APIs and data in different ways - charging merchants for instant account verification, offering SMEs subscription-based cash-flow dashboards, or providing lenders with advanced risk scoring on a usage basis. Each of these services taps a distinct customer segment and pricing model, creating a portfolio of revenues that is broader, more predictable, and less dependent on legacy products. 

• Enhanced security: With continuous data flows, unusual patterns can be detected the moment they appear. Faster identification leads to quicker responses, which limits potential losses while keeping genuine users moving through the system without interruption.  

Three Ways to Make Money from Open Banking  

Having explored both the opportunities and the challenges, it’s worth turning to the question that matters most: how can open banking actually generate revenue? There are many opportunities to explore, but a few stand out as particularly impactful. 

Premium API Products  

Beyond basic compliance, you can unlock revenue by developing premium API products that deliver extra value. Think real-time account validation, fraud detection or credit scoring insights. These can be packaged into tiered offerings for fintechs, insurers, and enterprise clients. Major banks like Barclays and BNP Paribas have already adopted this approach, offering premium open banking APIs integration into partners’ ecosystems, positioning themselves as innovation-ready institutions.   

Unlocking Data Value  

Being a decision-maker, you hold a powerful asset that gives your institution a major edge in open banking: data. Instead of keeping it locked away, you can securely share it with third-party platforms - budgeting apps, investment tools, or e-commerce sites. Even better, by partnering with fintechs in other niches, you unlock creative use cases, reach new customer segments, and turn your bank’s data into a valuable revenue stream.  

A great example is the recent partnership between Lloyds Bank and Lumio, offering open banking-powered tools that help young couples manage their finances together. With this move, Lloyds is building stronger connections with a new generation of customers, right where they’re spending their time and attention.  

Pay By Bank in the Spotlight  

One of the most promising ways to turn open banking into revenue is through payments, and the momentum speaks for itself. In the UK, open banking payments hit 27.7 million transactions last year, a 67% year-over-year increase.  

Leading the way is the Pay by Bank method, which lets merchants and third-party apps make direct, secure payments from a customer’s bank account without cards involved. The future looks bright: in the US, Pay by Bank is expected to exceed $100 billion in volume by 2025, driven by growing adoption from major retailers and payment platforms. 

For banks, this unlocks big wins:  

• New revenue from every transaction  
• Lower processing costs without card networks  
• More value for merchant and platform partners  

HSBC headed in that direction with their Token.io partnership, scaling Pay by Bank across a range of real-world use cases, from peer-to-peer payments to loan repayments.  

Accedia Example: How Open Banking Helped a UK Bank Grow

One example from our work comes from a mid-sized UK bank with around 30,000 customers. The bank used open banking to integrate with a fintech partner, enabling clients to manage accounts and cards directly through everyday messaging apps, reinforced with biometric security for added trust. As adoption grew, the bank moved its operations to the cloud and upgraded its database, making the platform faster, more reliable, and easier to scale. The collaboration delivered clear results: onboarding became smoother, customer engagement increased, and new API-driven services unlocked additional income streams, boosting overall revenues by about 20% in the first year. 

Explore Our Financial Software Development Work in the UK 

Building Your Roadmap for Open Banking Success 

Ready to move beyond compliance and catch the open banking wave? Here are some practical steps to start with:  

• Identify your highest-value API opportunities. Assess existing services like fraud detection or analytics and package them into premium offerings. Track performance using KPIs such as revenue per fintech partner, developer engagement, and API usage growth.  

• Treat data like a product, not just a byproduct. Use your open banking infrastructure to embed services into third-party platforms like budgeting apps, e-commerce sites, or digital marketplaces. It’s a cost-efficient way to reach new audiences and generate revenue beyond traditional banking channels.  

• Leverage the right technology partners. Map which parts of open banking you need to keep in-house - like customer relationships and regulatory oversight - and which can be accelerated with external expertise. Respectively, choose partners with a strong record in compliance, scalability, and developer support, and involve them early in the design stage to avoid costly retrofits. Set up joint KPIs and clear governance so collaboration stays focused and accountable. 

Whitepaper: From a Software Development Vendor to a Strategic Partner 

Conclusion   

Open banking is no longer just a regulatory checkbox. With the right technological stack and solid strategy, you can turn it into a powerful business asset - one that drives revenue, deepens customer relationships, and keeps them at the center of financial innovation. The opportunity is real. Now is the time to seize it.  

Ready to elevate your bank with open banking? Reach out to discuss your next steps.