The Tax Incentivised Savings Association (TISA) has completed the first phase of its project to deliver an Open Savings and Investment infrastructure, building on the back of Open Banking reforms to create wider Open Finance data sharing.

This supports the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) strategic ambitions, which TISA is actively involved in.

Working with a project group of financial industry participants - including Atos, Bravura Solutions, Coutts/RBS, Fidelity, FNZ, Hargreaves Lansdown, GBST, Morningstar, Northern Trust, Pershing, Schroders, SS&C DST, Target Group, The Investment Association and Open Banking Implementation Entity - the first phase focused on empowering customers so that they can share their data between firms in a standardised manner.

This fundamental building block should enable financial services incumbents and FinTechs to innovate and create dashboards for the consumer.

As a result, the Open Savings & Investment (OSI) project has developed open, interoperable standards and the associated Application Program Interface (API) specifications that underpin the messaging, technical, security, usability, customer experience and provider requirements.

Phase 1 defined the scope for the initial launch, which included investments, ISAs, General Investment Accounts, pensions, equities, bonds and debt, with further asset classes such as insurance being considered in later releases.

In phase two of the project, the focus will move to finalising the governance structure for managing the standards and their use, together with the business case and delivery plan including increased FinTech engagement, building and piloting the APIs and usability framework and customer experience testing.

TISA envisages that a legal entity will be created to govern all aspects of enrolment, conformance, certification, standards and API directory maintenance, and the legal and regulatory compliance.

This will follow a similar approach to the model used by TISA to establish the TeX asset transfer facility, which is an independent, not for profit, organisation.

David Dalton-Brown, TISA chief executive, said: “Along with TISA’s project to develop a Digital ID for financial services consumers, OSI is a key component in the drive towards fulfilling the FCA’s Open Finance strategy.

“Crucially, this is an opportunity for the industry to take the lead to develop a solution and, as was the case with TeX, avoid the need for mandatory intervention by the regulator.”

The OSI steering group has established a range of working groups comprising representatives from participating firms and other invited industry experts to achieve the delivery of the project.

Stuart Welch, head of personal investing for Fidelity International, added: “The consumer benefits of having an open savings and investment ecosystem are clear – following on from Open Banking, innovation of this nature presents plenty of business opportunities for our industry.”

TISA initiated the OSI project in March this year, following representations from 90 member firms at an open meeting held in September 2018 to establish the level of support for the initiative.

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