Powering the Reference Bank Application for Open Banking

Open Banking is changing the way banks do business in the United Kingdom forever and as with any good regulation, there's plenty of testing and requirements involved as well. Banks and fintechs haven't just been left to their own devices when it comes to preparing to open up precious customer data to third parties. Late last year, ForgeRock was selected by the Open Banking Implementation Entity to provide a Reference Bank Application to support leading banks, fintechs, and other third parties as they work to comply with Open Banking. What does that mean? Building on the ForgeRock Identity Platform, we're hosting and managing a key application that will help third parties to test and demonstrate their Open Banking capabilities. As third parties register and engage in the Open Banking ecosystem, they'll be using the Reference Bank Application, powered by ForgeRock as the catalyst for further innovation. With the Open Banking deadline behind us, ForgeRock is now playing a critical role in helping financial institutions with one of their biggest digital transformations to date.

This is a significant milestone for both ForgeRock and Open Banking. By selecting ForgeRock to provide the Reference Bank Application, it demonstrates Open Banking's confidence that our technology is capable of meeting their complex requirements including security, privacy, and performance. Our goal has always been to deliver the most complete digital identity management platform on the market and with our latest release last October, we added key features to extend our lead in Open Banking readiness. It's a testament to our elite engineering team that we're able to develop, host, manage, and deliver this cloud-based application to be used to test the Open Banking API ecosystem. It's not just the front-end UI we've created, but a critical part of the Open Banking infrastructure.

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A closer look at the technical details behind the ForgeRock Reference Bank Application for Open Banking.

 

With Open Banking comes the requisite acronym soup of the third party providers (TPPs) that want access to customer data APIs, be it account information service providers (AISPs) for account aggregation, or the payment information service providers (PISPs) for direct payments. Critical to the success of the TPPs' development effort is their ability to connect to bank APIs to test their applications to ensure they meet the Open Banking Standard. Because the ForgeRock Reference Bank Application is built to the API specifications outlined by the Open Banking Entity, it provides the necessary standard for testing the functionality of AISPs and PISPs. Any authorised bank, fintech, or third party participating in Open Banking will then be able to use it as a reference to build compliant apps and services for their customers. So before the shiny new fintech apps hit the market, before banks roll out personalised new services that build on years of customer data, and before consumers can have the choice to revolutionise their banking and payment experience, organisations will be using ForgeRock technology to ensure that they are Open Banking ready. Watch this short demo to see the sample AISP and PISP flows in action.

 

Building trusted customer relationships by enabling the secure sharing of personal data is at the heart of what we do at ForgeRock. It's why we've been a customer identity company since day one and it's why we continue to innovate in areas like privacy, customer experience, and the internet of things. By developing the Reference Bank Application, I'm proud to say that now we'll also be helping others to do so too. In fact, we're already working with major U.K. banks like HSBC to not only comply with the regulation, but to develop competitive new offerings that leverage the tremendous power of digital identity. We're doing our part to make Open Banking a reality, this is only the start!

To learn more about how ForgeRock can help your organisation with Open Banking and PSD2, visit our Financial Services page.

Nick Caley is VP, Financial Services and Regulatory, at ForgeRock