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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched a comprehensive Open Finance strategy aimed at expanding data-driven innovation across financial services and giving consumers greater control over how they manage their money.
The new initiative includes insights from a joint report by KPMG and Europe Economics, the creation of a Smart Data Accelerator, and the rollout of two tech sprints designed to test real-world open finance applications.
According to the FCA, the strategy is designed to “empower people to take control of their financial data and plan their finances for the future,” building on the progress achieved through open banking.
“Open banking has laid important groundwork to make everyday banking and payments more diverse and accessible,” the FCA noted. “Open finance has the potential to extend these benefits across a broader range of financial services and products.”
The KPMG and Europe Economics report outlines how open finance could enhance transparency, competition, and consumer choice while also highlighting the need to manage trade-offs between innovation and risk. These include establishing secure data-sharing frameworks, ensuring robust technology infrastructure, and maintaining consumer protection as financial ecosystems evolve.
Launched in September 2025, the Smart Data Accelerator will serve as an extension of the FCA’s regulatory sandbox, allowing participating firms to test practical use cases of open finance. The project is being developed in collaboration with tech firm RaidiamLink, which will facilitate secure data-sharing experiments among participating institutions.
In addition, the FCA will host two dedicated tech sprints between November 2025 and February 2026, focusing on the mortgage and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sectors. These sprints aim to explore how open finance tools can improve access to credit, streamline lending processes, and strengthen financial inclusion.
By accelerating the transition from open banking to open finance, the FCA seeks to foster innovation, enhance consumer empowerment, and ensure that the UK remains a global leader in digital financial regulation.
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