A look at Open Banking statistics across Europe

Years ago, the first iteration of open banking was born in Europe, in the form of Payment Services Directive and later, the revised PSD2. These sets of regulations paved the way for a service that would gain steam around the world, offering companies the ability to access client banking information (with the clients’ consent) and make informed decisions about clients based on that information. 

As the years marched on, open banking spread beyond Europe to parts of Asia, South and North America, Africa and Australia. The growth was spurred by a number of things, including the push for more digital banking in the wake of COVID-19, and, simply, the convenience of the all-online service. 

But as open banking continues to become a favored practice globally, few places have yet to surpass Europe, the birthplace of – and hub for – open banking technology. This year, experts will continue to look toward the future of open banking and digital finance in light of the PSD2 consultations this summer, and it’s important to see how the practice has grown. 

Now, as we kick off 2023 and what is sure to be an exciting year in the world of digital finance, we wanted to do an in-depth look at that history. 

We’ve gathered statistics from various market reports over the last few years that show how popular open banking has become in Europe and – importantly – what experts think is in store for its future.

Here’s a look at the numbers:

An increase in users in the last 2 years 

Europe makes up 49% of all open banking users

• Open banking came into force in 2018 with the adoption of a revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) but by 2020 it was already seeing steep upward momentum. It hit a milestone in 2020 when 12.2 million people were estimated to be using open banking technology in Europe. That’s nearly half of the total number of open banking users in the world in 2020 which was 24.7 million, according to a Statstica report
  

UK hits 5 million user milestone

• Within Europe, the UK is known as a major hub of open banking, and it proved that in early 2022 when it hit its own milestone, reaching 5 million users around the country. The leap from 4 million users to 5 million only took four months, according to openbanking.org
  

European users expected to reach 63.8 million in 2024

• According to a Statistica report in May, the growth of open banking is so rapid that Europe is expected to see nearly 64 million users in 2024. That’s an increase of over 400% in just 4 years.
  

Globally, a 50% average annual rate of growth 

• The number of open banking users around the world is increasing rapidly, at a rate of around 50% a year, according to the Statistica report. They expect the global number of users to be 132.2 million in 2024. 

API products and calls on the rise in Europe

Europe accounts for 46% of global API product offerings

• Application Programming Interfaces, which allow regulated service providers to share financial data under open banking, are an indicator of the popularity of open banking in a given region. And in Europe – not including the UK – the sheer number of API products accounts for nearly half of the global offering, with 2,537 products from Europe versus 5,564 globally, according to a July report from Platformable.

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UK’s API calls increased to over 1 billion per month in four years. 

• Once again, the UK tends to lead the rest of Europe when it comes to open banking; last year Statistica reported that last year, the number of API calls made by third party providers using ASPSP Open Banking APIs increased from just under 2 million per month in 2018, to over 1 billion in 2022. 

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Fintechs and TPPs popular in Europe

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Europe has 2 fintechs per 1 million people

• Not including the UK, Europe last year had 927 operating API-enabled fintechs, which is around 2 fintechs per 1 million people, according to a July report from Platformable. Of that number, around 76% actually originated in Europe.

Over 300 TPPs received approval to provide open banking services between 2019 and 2022

• The number of Third Party Providers continues to grow, and the number of TPPs in Europe has more than doubled in the last three years, with the number of TPPs a little more than 500 by the beginning of this year. That does not take into account the over 1,200 banks acting as TPPs, according to a Konsentus report.  

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The future looks bright for open banking in Europe

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Experts say adoption of open banking services will double by 2027

• A report from Forrester that looks at the future of open banking in Europe, predicts the adoption of open banking services will double in Europe between 2022 and 2027. Specifically (and unsurprisingly) the UK will have the most users, while Sweden will have the highest penetration rate, according to the report.  

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