1. Account aggregation: a 360° view of your finances

“Your current account here, your savings there, your credit elsewhere... What if everything was centralised?” Thanks to apps like Mint or Linxo, open banking automatically combines your bank accounts, investments and cards in a single interface. No more switching back and forth between applications: a global balance, categorised spending and real-time alerts. Financial management, simplified at last. This is the path that Spuerkeess, Post and Raiffeisen have been following since 2019. Six Luxembourg banks now offer this option.

2. Direct payments: bye-bye middlemen

“Why pay card fees when your bank account will suffice?” In the Netherlands, Ideal makes it possible to pay for an online purchase in two clicks, directly from your account. Faster, cheaper and without sharing your card details. It’s a revolution driven by open APIs and adopted by giants such as Klarna and Tink and players such as Bancontact (Belgium), EPS (Austria), Giropay (Germany), Trustly and Swish (Sweden). Revolut, Paypal and Wise also allow money to be sent directly from a bank account. Today, for example, Trustly has transformed the performance and experience of payments for more than 9,000 merchants in over 30 markets, connecting them to more than 650m consumers via 12,000 banks.

3. Intelligent budgeting: your personal coach against unnecessary spending

“What if your bank told you STOP before you do something crazy?” The neobanks N26 and Revolut analyse your transactions to warn you if you are overspending. Yolt (UK) goes further: it compares your spending to that of similar users and suggests where to cut back. The UK’s Cleo has adopted a tone tailored to Gen Z and (uses a slice of pizza as a mouse cursor) to take consumers towards automated savings on a variable or once-and-for-all basis. Consumers can forget about having to save (with the automated savings option) or choose to be fined if they fail to meet the targets they set themselves.

4. Alternative credit: a tailor-made loan, even without a track record

“What if your bank flow was worth more than a credit score?” Fintechs like Credit Kudos (UK) are using open banking to assess your creditworthiness in real time. The result? Microloans tailored to your income, even for those excluded from the traditional system. In the Netherlands, Bunq uses your spending habits to set your rates. There are many players in this market offering very different products, but be careful that the technology does not disguise “buy-now-pay-later” schemes that break up payments or impose sky-high interest rates, sometimes in excess of 20% compared with 3% to 4% with a traditional bank.

5. Professional services: automated accounting, even for very small businesses

“What if your accounting software could synchronise with your bank?” Quickbooks (US) or Pennylane (FR) connect your business accounts to automatically generate invoices, VAT returns and balance sheets. No more manual data entry: open banking becomes the accounting assistant for SMEs. Qonto even centralises supplier payments at the click of a button.

6. Neobanks: smart, social money

“What if your bank saved for you effortlessly?” Chime (US) rounds up every card payment and invests the difference. Monzo (UK) lets you “block” a leisure budget in sub-accounts. Thanks to open banking, these players are reinventing savings and consumption, with functionalities designed for millennials.

7. International transfers: money without borders

“Why pay 5% on a foreign transfer?” Wise uses open banking to bypass traditional banking networks. By accessing local accounts directly, the platform cuts costs (by up to a factor of eight) and timescales (from three days to a few seconds). It’s a model copied by Revolut and others.

8. Subscriptions: the detective who tracks your money leaks

“Are you still paying for that VPN you no longer use?” Trim (US) scans your transactions via open banking, identifies Netflix, Spotify or your gym, and helps you cancel with one click. On average, users save €300 a year. In Europe, Emma and Yolt offer the same kind of service.

9. Insurance: premiums tailored to your lifestyle

“What if your home insurance went down because you do yoga?” Lemonade (US) combines banking data and lifestyle habits to personalise your rates. In the UK, Manypets (Bought By Many) uses the history of veterinary expenses to offer fairer pet insurance, and this is an area that many solution providers are working on (such as Pawp for a payment card and a subscription-based veterinary emergency fund, while Wagmo UI offers a veterinary reimbursement card and tracking of these particular expenses).

10. Public services: welfare benefits without paperwork

“What if the state checked your income in real time?” In Estonia, open banking automatically calculates your eligibility for social benefits. There’s no longer any need to provide bank statements: secure APIs access the necessary data directly. The result? The process is cut by a factor of 10 and there is less fraud. And recipients can also receive aid more quickly and in a more targeted way.

This article was originally published in .