The executive chair and founder of Snoop has written a letter urging the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to force banks to promote Open Banking.

Jayne-Anne Gadhia, who founded the FinTech in 2020, said that the main barrier to achieving quicker and widespread adoption is not technical but instead down to consumer attitudes and perceptions relating to data sharing.

Gadhia claimed that consumers expect, need and want explicit and visible reassurance from trusted partners to support their decision making, especially when it comes to their banking data and financial lives.

“That’s where the CMA9 come in,” added Gadhia.

The CMA9 are the nine largest banks and building societies in the UK. They include: AIB Group plc trading as First Trust Bank in Northern Ireland, Bank of Ireland, Barclays Bank, HSBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, Northern Bank, trading as Danske Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group , and Santander UK plc.

The Snoop founder said reassurance about data sharing should come from UK’s largest banks and financial institutions, other consumers via reviews, and trusted bodies like regulators.

She added that a simple, low-cost practical solution would be for the CMA9 to use their existing digital and marketing assets to “point at a single point of truth” to help normalise Open Banking.

To be clear, Gahdia explained in the letter, Snoop is not suggesting a marketing campaign funded by banks.

But, she said, the CMA9 could incorporate an Open Banking App Store URL into their advertising and add a home page tile which clicks through to the same page explaining Open Banking in a clear and standardised manner.

“It should not just be down to smaller businesses and FinTechs with limited marketing budgets to do all of the heavy lifting in building consumer awareness and trust,” Gadhia wrote. “We believe that the CMA9 actively promoting and endorsing Open Banking (specifically authorised and regulated third parties) would go a long way to establishing trust and providing the reassurance consumers need relating to security and sharing data.”

Share Story: