At Open Banking Expo London, on October 22, I had the pleasure of moderating a globally diverse panel, titled “The Global View: Insights And Innovations From Leading Markets”, with voices from:

• Brazil (Janaina Soares, Financial Sector Specialist, Central Bank of Brazil),
• Saudi Arabia (Amer Rajkhan, Head of Open Banking, Riyad Bank),
• Australia (Lauren White, Executive General Manager, ACCC’s Consumer Data Rights Division),
• United Kingdom (Huw Davies, Co-Founder and CEO, Ozone API).

I set my mission to create a conversation that moved beyond the usual conference narratives. What followed was a 45-minute travel around the open banking world, one of contrast and convergence, one of culture and technology. We explored national strategies, regulatory models, and the cultural lenses that shape open finance across continents.

We discussed what worked, what didn’t, and why.

In a recent LinkedIn post, I shared a one-line insight from each country. This article takes that conversation further, delving deeper into the underlying philosophies and real-world use cases shaping open finance worldwide.

Because the real recipe for success is about contextualising innovation to local ecosystems while pushing for global interoperability.

Brazil: From Financial Access to Financial Empowerment

Brazil’s open finance journey is perhaps the boldest globally, not just in scale, but in intent. That is interesting, as I learned in another panel that their agenda was heavily influenced by the UK. However, the UK isn’t anywhere near as well developed as Brazil in terms of open banking and open finance.

The roots of Brazil’s open finance journey go back at least 12 years, when the Central Bank began regulating payment schemes and payment institutions, laying the groundwork for innovation and digital inclusion. This included the creation of a regulatory sandbox, a robust framework for credit access, and broader fintech engagement.

PIX is a very vivid and well-known example. It’s the instant payment system introduced by the Central Bank in 2020 to address a national challenge: financial exclusion.

PIX transformed access to the formal financial system, onboarding 96% of Brazil’s adult population in just a few years, including individuals with bank accounts, as well as those who previously had only alternative wallet solutions without access to a bank. But more importantly, it created the infrastructure to build upon: open finance became the next logical step.

Brazil’s open finance model is designed around:

• Mandatory interoperability
• Strong governance structures
• Performance-based standards
• Early and ongoing consumer engagement

Inspirational use cases include:

• Overdraft Alerts: Aggregators warn users when they’re about to go into overdraft, offering fund transfers or alternative credit options.
• Salary Portability: Gig workers with income across institutions can be offered personalised financial products through aggregated income profiles.
• Investment Personalisation: Over 2 million customised investment proposals were generated in H1 2025 using open finance data.

Brazil shows that when inclusion is the foundation, innovation can scale with purpose.

Saudi Arabia: Vision-Driven Reform and Embedded Ethics

Saudi Arabia’s approach to open finance is deeply rooted in its broader national transformation, known as Vision 2030. This is about building a digital-first, diversified economy, and fintech is just one piece of a much larger puzzle.

By having the interests of banks and politics more aligned than in many other countries, they allow a much speedier and more consistent rollout, as the process of change and alignment is much less painful than in other regions (like Europe).

Early on, the Central Bank and the Capital Market Authority introduced regulatory sandboxes, encouraging banks and startups to openly test their products. Interestingly, Islamic finance principles were integrated from the beginning.

The outcome: ethical finance combines with digital technology through open banking.

The country’s emphasis on SMEs is also vital, opening up new markets via alternative credit scoring and data-driven financial services.

Inspirational use cases include:

• API-based SME Credit: Access to consolidated data allows banks to tailor credit offers to smaller businesses with limited collateral history.
• Bank Infrastructure Monetisation: Open finance enables banks to transform their operational systems into digital products, offering infrastructure as a service.

Saudi Arabia demonstrates how a national vision, when combined with robust regulatory design and embedded ethical frameworks, can facilitate rapid and fair transformation.

Australia: Consent-First, Sector-Agnostic, and Waiting for Scale

Australia took a unique route. Rather than focus narrowly on financial services, it launched the Consumer Data Right (CDR): a legal framework for data sharing across multiple sectors, starting with banking and expanding into energy, telco, and beyond.

This regulatory-first, consent-centric model emphasises:

• Privacy and security by design
• High compliance standards
• Sector-neutral portability of data rights

The rollout has been slower than expected, due to the absence of payments initiation and commercial incentives. Businesses are complying, but compelling use cases for consumers remain limited.

Inspirational use cases include:

• Account Switching Enablement: Although still underutilised, CDR provides the foundation for consumers to seamlessly switch providers by securely porting their financial data.
• CDR requires a standardised, centralised method for consumers to manage their consents across multiple providers. This allows households to view, modify, or revoke data sharing in one place: a trust-enhancing feature not yet common in many markets.
• There are prototypes and early offerings that use CDR data to deliver real-time comparisons for transaction accounts, savings rates, or credit card options tailored to actual usage data, not just marketing.

Australia shows that trust and strong foundations are essential, and with the right commercial incentives and compelling use cases, they can unlock meaningful momentum.

United Kingdom: The Pioneer Now Facing Its Second Act

The UK has long held the reputation of being the global pioneer in open banking. The 2016 CMA order created a formal standard through the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), applying to the nine largest banks. This catalysed fintech growth and global emulation.

But the ecosystem now faces a challenge: What comes after mandatory compliance?

Beyond the CMA9, uptake has been uneven. The industry is debating monetisation models, and the absence of performance enforcement has fragmented quality.

Without clear monetisation models or performance standards, adoption has stalled beyond the core institutions. The next phase must shift from regulatory compliance to value creation, with premium APIs, ecosystem incentives, and consistent technical delivery at its core.

To move forward, the UK must broaden participation beyond the mandated banks, encourage blended business models, and introduce performance-based certification that ensures quality, not just presence. Only then can open finance evolve from a compliance-driven initiative to a strategic growth enabler.

Although I’m not convinced that adding more organisations and governance bodies is the right path to a less fragmented market, what’s needed is clearer direction, stronger incentives, and real accountability.

Global View: Convergence and the Call for Interoperability

Across all markets, certain patterns are emerging: common challenges in monetisation, fragmentation in standards, and the urgent need for broader ecosystem alignment. Yet there’s growing momentum to bridge these divides, not through replication, but through convergence.

In the EU, the proposed Financial Data Access (FiDA) framework marks a critical next step beyond PSD2. FiDA aims to expand data sharing across sectors covering savings, insurance, pensions, and more, while strengthening consent management, API performance, and governance. If executed well, it could position Europe as a global benchmark in open finance maturity, with a regulatory model that moves from data access to digital empowerment.

Meanwhile, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is piloting Project Agorá, a collaborative effort involving Brazil, the UAE, and other countries to explore cross-border open finance use cases. One scenario involves a Brazilian business utilising its local financial data to secure credit from a UAE bank: an example of how open finance could transform global credit and trade finance by making financial identities more portable.

This shows that open finance is no longer just national infrastructure, it is evolving into a networked global capability. However, for that to happen, we need interoperable standards, aligned incentives, and regulations that support action, not just access.

Best Practices: A Playbook for Open Finance Success

Across these diverse markets, some common denominators of success stand out:

1. Start with a Clear National Vision: Brazil’s inclusion agenda and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 show how clarity fuels execution.
2. Anchor in Financial Empowerment: From real-time alerts to gig-worker insights, relevance drives engagement.
3. Mandate Standards, and Certify Them: Performance-based APIs only work if they are audited and enforced.
4. Contextualise Consent: Data sharing becomes intuitive when consumers understand the value in the moment.
5. Blend Free and Premium APIs: Access for all, monetisation where justified and balance is key.
6. Invest in Interoperability: Whether GCC alignment or BIS initiatives, cross-border is the next frontier.
7. Enable Action, Not Just Access: Data alone doesn’t help consumers. Empower them with real-time capabilities: switching, paying, applying, verifying.
8. Make Open Finance a Strategic Channel: It’s not just regulation, it’s your next-gen digital engagement platform.

This was one of 3 sessions that Rik and Andrew discuss in the Director's Cut Debrief session found below, sharing insights from the Open Banking Expo event in London and digging into some of the points raised during an Open Banking panel with views from Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Australia and the UK, and voicing a few concerns about The Future of Consumer Finance when it comes to old age 😵‍💫

You can watch the video discussion below or find us on your favourite podcast platform here (don't forget to subscribe!).