Global: CBUAE Issues Open Finance Regulation to Ensure Soundness and Efficiency of Financial Services

The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) has issued the Open Finance Regulation to ensure the soundness and efficiency of open finance services, promote innovation, enhance competitiveness, serve consumers’ interests, and reinforce the UAE’s status as a leading financial technology hub.

As part of the CBUAE’s Financial Infrastructure Transformation programme, participation in the open finance framework is mandatory for all financial institutions under CBUAE supervision, with respect to the products and services within their scope.

Licensed financial institutions (LFIs), acting as data holders and service providers, are required to grant participants in the Open Finance Framework access to customer data and the ability to initiate transactions on accounts and products, contingent on the express consent of users to provide services aligned with their needs.

The Open Finance Framework enables LFIs to access and utilise consumer financial data to create personalised experiences and tailor offerings to meet consumers’ needs. This facilitates consumers in consolidating their financial information through seamless data sharing across platforms.

The regulation encompasses a Trust Framework, an Application Planning Interface (API) Hub, and Common Infrastructural Services, which provide Open Finance access for cross-sectoral data sharing and transaction initiation on behalf of users. The Open Finance Platform offers Financial Service Providers a consumer consent model for sharing financial data with trusted third parties within an integrated business system.