__Berlin, 15th June 2021__ – In cooperation with Yapily, Vivid, the Berlin-based financial platform for investing, banking and saving, now offers its customers a free top-up feature via [Open Banking](https://yapily.com). Vivid will make it easier and more convenient for customers to transfer money from almost any bank account to their Vivid pocket. Customers will not need to enter their details manually every time they wish to transfer money from now on as these will be saved. Vivid users will save time when transferring money in future and can do it from the Vivid app instead of using multiple banking apps they might have.

__Alexander Emeshev, co-founder and CEO of Vivid Money, commented on the partnership with Yapily and the new feature:__ “We’ve noticed over the last months that our customers wanted to have this feature to have a better experience using Vivid. So we wanted to satisfy this demand and are happy to roll out the top-up feature across all our markets – Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Thanks to our partnership with Yapily, we are now able to offer this feature. This is only the first step of a broader roll-out of various ways, topping-up Vivid users’ pockets. We aim to make banking easy for our customers.”

Leveraging [Open Banking](https://yapily.com) technology, Vivid has chosen to partner with infrastructure provider, Yapily, for its smooth and secure connectivity to our users' bank accounts across Europe. Thanks to their technology, Vivid can send payment instructions to the bank the customers choose to initiate the payment. Customers will then confirm it in their banking app. The benefits are that it is an easy way to top up their Vivid pockets using an awesome UX and all accounts will be saved for future top-ups.

__Stefano Vaccino, Founder and CEO of Yapily, comments on the partnership with Vivid:__ “We are very excited about our partnership with Vivid. Open Banking has disrupted payments and we are seeing many innovative companies, like Vivid, embrace this technology to improve the experience and convenience for their users. We look forward to building and scaling a successful partnership together as we continue to focus on powering Vivid in further European markets.” 

---

__About Vivid__

Vivid Money is the first financial platform that combines all daily needs around money in one app. Whether investing, banking or saving, Vivid offers a simple, flexible and transparent solution to help customers grow their wealth. The company aims to provide customers across Europe with an unparalleled investment and banking experience, offering a wide range of financial services without unnecessary fees. Just eight months after its launch in June 2020, over 100,000 customers are already using Vivid Money products in Germany, France and Spain. Vivid Money was founded in Berlin in 2019 by Artem Yamanov and Alexander Emeshev and is made up of an international, highly qualified team of more than 200 employees. The app, the customer service and the processes for the maintenance and further development of the app have been tested and awarded by TÜV-Süd. After only one year, Vivid Money has already raised over 100 million euros from renowned investors, including Ribbit Capital and Greenoaks Capital, and is valued at 360 million euros.

__About Yapily__ 

Yapily is an Open Banking infrastructure provider, allowing companies to seamlessly access financial data and initiate payments. Designed and built for Open Finance, Yapily enables better and fairer financial products for everyone.

The company has raised $18.4m in funding to date, and provides infrastructure for industry leaders including American Express, Intuit Quickbooks, Vivid, Moneyfarm and BUX. Headquartered in London, UK, Yapily employs over 90 people and continues to scale rapidly. 


Vivid announces new partnership with Yapily to offer top-up feature

In cooperation with Yapily, Vivid, the Berlin-based financial platform for investing, banking and saving, now offers its customers a free top-up feature via Open Banking, to make it easier and more convenient for customers to top-up their Vivid pocket.

Open Banking usage has increased significantly since the start of the pandemic. In the UK alone, the OBIE reports that over 3 million consumers now use Open Banking-enabled products and services to improve their financial wellbeing, and more and more countries are harnessing the power of Open Banking to enable better and fairer financial services. 

But while the market has a rough idea of who is winning the metaphorical league and who is missing the net, no-one really knows what the actual picture looks like across Europe. Or what this means for the future of Open Banking adoption. Yapily’s European Open Banking league table provides this comprehensive overview of the market.

![Heat map for Euro 2020 Open Banking](//images.ctfassets.net/3ndxs7efitel/3au684HMUdWGR7d0pZv4Tm/628bef6d4ef639ff4dbf0920dbba666f/monocromatic4.png)

The league table - based on data compiled in 2021 by Yapily through its EU-wide Open Banking API infrastructure and monitoring tools - reveals that while parts of the EU are making positive strides to drive Open Banking adoption and are on track to evolve into Open Finance, others are far behind and missing their scoring opportunity.

Each country has been ranked based on levels of supervision and enforcement by the member state, the presence of Open Banking from a technical standard, regulator interpretation, API standards and bank readiness, and overall product score. Yapily has also shared regulatory insight on where and how each country can positively improve their overall score and ranking.

__Andria Evripidou, Policy Lead at Yapily comments on the data,__ “The league table demonstrates the positive impact Open Banking adoption has across markets and highlights that the ecosystem as a whole, is on the right path to offering fairer financial services for everyone. 

“While some countries have a bigger presence, over the next few years, we will start to see standardised technical requirements that map customer journeys across all countries and better educate industries on Open Banking, as well as the direction of the ecosystem.

“Ultimately, all countries are working towards a common goal - to evolve with Open Finance - and at Yapily, we’re excited to watch the rest of Europe dive forward with this innovation.”

| Country     | Detail     | Score     | Improvements     |
| ---------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---------- |
| UK       | Yapily’s data reveals that the UK comes out on top as the leading adopter of Open Banking, with it’s clear functionality and more widespread mandating of interesting features, such as Bulk Payments and VRP (variable recurring payments).       | 10       | Open Banking has been implemented successfully in the UK. The focus should now be on fixing some of the remaining issues in the technical implementation. Additionally, the industry would benefit from a roadmap to further the implementation of Open Finance.       |
| Ireland       | Ireland's Open Banking success is very similar to the UK's, in the sense of regulation and adoption. As a result of Brexit, many UK businesses have set up satellites or a main base in Ireland. However, given the mix of UK and Berlin group standard that a few banks use, there is some complexity when integrating with a wide variety of banks in Ireland.       | 9       | Ireland has closely followed the UK with regards to the implementation of Open Banking. However, in Ireland an entity that is similar to the OBIE has not yet been formed and would potentially add great value to the wider ecosystem. An OBIE-like entity could support Irish companies in implementing technical specifications and drive adoption rates forward by increasing the trust in the ecosystem.       |
| Germany       | Germany also ranks high as it has strong regulatory supervision and uses Berlin Group’s API - the most prescriptive after UK Open Banking. However, it has low guidance provided around the implementation of Open Banking and could do with support on issuing regulatory guidelines around user journeys and customer authentication.       | 8       | Germany's slow adoption rate of Open Banking is generally due to two factors. The first being poor guidance on the appropriate implementation of Open Banking, leading to various interpretations. Secondly, cultural attitudes towards using digital payment methods. On the public policy side, the regulatory bodies can do better at increasing the awareness of the benefits attached to Open Banking.       |
| Netherlands       | Although the Netherlands use the Berlin Group standard for Open Banking, regulatory supervision is comprehensive. There is also wide scale adoption of PIS amongst the population.       | 8       | In the Netherlands, the use of PIS is widely adopted through iDeal - a PIS provider. However, AIS has not been as widely adopted and consumers remain sceptical about its benefits. Our recommendation would be for the regulator to try and open up the market to more TPPs, increasing competition by lowering legislative barriers to entry and do more work on increasing awareness on the security features of Open Banking.       |
| Austria       | Austria is very similar to the German market and Open Banking standard, automatically scoring them quite high. However, there is no industry body like the OBIE in Austria but they do have powerful associations in the Open Banking space driving standardisation.       | 7.5       | The regulator could work more closely with the industry to deliver guidelines that match the ecosystem's requirements. This could be done through working relevant associations or through consultations that can be used to understand the gaps that need to be covered, in order for TPPs to be able to offer a wider range of Open Banking products/services.       |
| Estonia       | Estonia has been trying to bring in a lot of foreign investment since Brexit, hence they have invested in developing a fertile regulatory environment for foreign firms. Open Banking has been one of the selling points/central areas of attention for regulators there. However, despite sharing a number of banks with many of the Baltic/Nordic regions, implementations vary, making connectivity slightly more tricky.       | 7.5       | Regulators should mandate a set of common technical standards that are more similar to the ones used around the EU. Even though Open Banking authorisation is relatively streamlined in Estonia, authorities should focus on ensuring that firms meet the legal requirements once authorised and enforce against poor quality API performance.       |
| Lithuania       | Similarly to Estonia, Lithuania has developed a strong Fintech movement with many UK firms setting up European bases in Vilnius. You can expect Fintechs to continue the push for innovation, supported by regulators and banks.       | 7.5       | Lithuania, in a similar way to Estonia, has made authorisation guidelines simple and easy to understand, which have supported market entrants. However, more attention needs to be paid in standardising consumer journeys and developing a set of regulatory guidelines specific to UX would be a considerable improvement for the market.       |
| Poland       | Open Banking is definitely a high priority in Poland. There is a strong sense of cooperation between industry and regulators. There is some guidance formed around the Polish API standard, however it is extremely bespoke making implementation difficult.       | 7       | Regulatory authorities could focus on delivering API specifications that are closer to the ones used by most EU countries. They could also focus on stricter enforcement of PSD2 standards as the current implementation is patchy.       |
| France       | The STET framework is used throughout France for Open Banking, it can have different interpretations by banks, which has led to discrepancies in implementation. On the whole, feature coverage is good but there are limitations.       | 6       | France's legislative framework is quite complicated and has a strong focus on AML. To support the adoption of Open Banking, regulators could provide more guidance to firms on how best to meet legislative requirements. Currently, firms in France have to meet quite strict regulatory requirements in order to be authorised, these are not always proportionate to the risk profile of a company.       |
| Spain       | Although Spain uses the Berlin group standard, Redsys API gateway makes it easy to integrate in Spain. But, there are many variations between banks, meaning it is harder to normalise across integrations.       | 6       | Even though regulatory bodies have welcomed PSD2 and Open Banking in Spain, the supervision and enforcement of the rules have been very weak. A stricter approach whereby the regulators collect real data around API availability and adherence to legal requirements, followed by enforcement against breaches of these rules, would ensure that OB journeys are streamlined therefore accelerating adoption.       |
| Italy       | Italy has very low supervision of Open Banking standards and a very slow regulatory response. PSD2 was adopted, however no changes were made or added to the original legislation around Open Banking. Italy uses the Berlin groups standard, but general payments implementation (outside of single domestic payments) is very poor.       | 5       | Italy needs a speedier and more agile regulatory approach for Open Banking to take off. The regulator could set-up a dedicated Open Banking support team to help firms navigate the regulatory environment or provide guidance to PSD2 implementation.       |
| Denmark       | Denmark has good regulatory supervision with some guidance provided around implementation. However, it has no industry body, to help centralise standardisation and drive technical standards. This is something they will most likely be implementing in the coming years.       | 5       | Given the existing direction of Denmark and it's welcoming approach to Open Banking, regulators should start focusing on how Open Banking will become interoperable with Open Finance. Regulators could provide a roadmap to start preparing TPPs on how to adjust their internal systems, in a way that would allow them to integrate with other financial providers beyond banks as features become available.       |
| Norway, Sweden & Finland       | These three countries have good regulatory supervision with some guidance provided around Open Banking implementation. However, there is no OBIE-like body, to help centralise standardisation and drive technical standards.       | 5       | An OBIE-like body would add a lot of value to the ecosystem as it would help clarify any remaining issues around the implementation of Open Banking and how the industry could address more use cases, which at the moment are limited in these countries.       |
| Latvia       | Although Open Banking is not a regulatory priority, Latvia does share banks with many baltic and nordic states.       | 5       | Regulators should develop a set of guidelines on what is expected from TPPs. This would reduce uncertainty and provide an incentive for more firms to either enter the market or adopt Open Banking.       |
| Portugal       | Regulators have worked with the industry to progress standardisation of technical standards, despite this, banks and firms are yet to widely adopt Open Banking.       | 4.5       | In Portugal the main barrier to Open Banking adoption is the incumbent banks approach to supporting TPPs. Regulators need to prescribe stricter SLAs for banks to meet. For example, TPPs should be able to resolve issues and outages with banks, within 3 working days. Regulators should also collect more data and supervise API availability more closely. Removing any artificial barriers raised in consumer journeys that make it easier to use a card instead of Open Banking when making a payment will also aid adoption in Portugal.       |
| Belgium       | Regulatory support for Open Banking in Belgium is very slow. Regulatory supervision and guidance around implementation is very minimal.       | 4       | Similar to other EU countries, a swifter approach to enforcing PSD2 standards would benefit the implementation of Open Banking. At the moment, Open Banking complaints or notifications are slow to be answered and incumbents have made Open Banking journeys more difficult. Regulators need to specify more detailed criteria for TPPs and banks to understand how user journeys should look and feel.       |
| Czech Republic      | Open Banking is a very low priority for regulators and there is no guidance around implementation.       | 3.5       | Due to the low interest in this area, the best way to move forward would be to set-up an OBIE-like entity to standardise technical requirements and consumer journeys. This would ensure that all industry participants are aware of the direction of the ecosystem. Any other approach would be too slow to deliver considerable benefits within a reasonable timeframe.       |
| Iceland       | Open Banking is a very low priority for regulators and there is no guidance around implementation.       | 3       | Iceland has a relatively small financial system. As such, industry coordination becomes easier. The regulatory bodies could move quicker in providing a set of minimum standards and expectations on how Open Banking should be implemented and then allow the industry to develop its own solutions by a specified deadline.       |
| Luxembourg       | Open Banking is a very low priority for regulators and there is no guidance around implementation.       | 3       | Due to the low interest in this area, the best way to move forward would be to set-up an OBIE-like entity to standardise technical requirements and consumer journeys. This would ensure that all industry participants are aware of the direction of the ecosystem. Any other approach would be too slow to deliver considerable benefits in a reasonable timeframe.       |
| Greece       | Open Banking is a very low priority for regulators and there is no guidance around implementation.       | 2.5       | Due to the low interest in this area, the best way to move forward would be to set-up an OBIE-like entity to standardise technical requirements and consumer journeys. This would ensure that all industry participants are aware of the direction of the ecosystem. Any other approach would be too slow to deliver considerable benefits in a reasonable timeframe.       |
| Romania       | Open Banking is a very low priority for regulators and there is no guidance around implementation.       | 2       | Due to the low interest in this area, the best way to move forward would be to set-up an OBIE-like entity to standardise technical requirements and consumer journeys. This would ensure that all industry participants are aware of the direction of the ecosystem. Any other approach would be too slow to deliver considerable benefits in a reasonable timeframe.       |
| Hungary       | Open Banking is a very low priority for regulators and there is no guidance around implementation.       | 2       | Due to the low interest in this area, the best way to move forward would be to set-up an OBIE-like entity to standardise technical requirements and consumer journeys. This would ensure that all industry participants are aware of the direction of the ecosystem. Any other approach would be too slow to deliver considerable benefits in a reasonable timeframe.       |


European Open Banking League Table

In line with the upcoming European Championships, we have put together a report to rank the countries in terms of Open Banking environment. We have assessed the readiness of the regulatory and product environment to apply a score to each country.

__London, UK, 8th June 2021:__ Yapily, the leading [Open Banking infrastructure](https://yapily.com) provider, has today announced the launch of its new [Open Banking Bulk Payments](https://www.yapily.com/blog/open-banking-bulk-payments/) service, with [Comma](https://usecomma.com/), the SME payments platform, already live and benefiting from the service in the UK. 

Working in close partnership with Comma, Yapily has simplified the complex process of Bulk Payments - under [Open Banking](https://yapily.com) - in the UK. The proposition provides customers such as Comma with the API connection they need to create a reliable, secure and scalable Bulk Payments feature for their [accountancy](https://yapily.com/solutions/accounting/), payroll and bookkeeper clients.

Until now, [Bulk Payments](https://www.yapily.com/blog/open-banking-bulk-payments/) in the UK have only been available to medium to large scale businesses that have corporate banking accounts. As such, many SMEs have been forced to rely on legacy, inefficient payment processes causing significant headaches and issues when it comes to paying staff, suppliers and customers on time, every time. 

Harnessing Yapily’s Bulk Payment offering, Comma’s accountant and bookkeeper customers can create and share payment runs with clients; who in turn can bulk pay bills, taxes and salaries on their phone or desktop, in a few clicks from their own bank account. This enables accountants and bookkeepers to offer new payment services to clients - something demanded of them for many years. Operational efficiency is an essential benefit as SMEs look to rebuild post-pandemic. 

__Tom Beckenham, CEO and Founder of Comma said,__ “Comma was developed out of a passion for helping small businesses. Paying anything manually is a tedious process and often affects the small business owner. Working closely and transparently with Yapily, we’re now able to provide our customers with a magical payments experience. It gives them the time back to focus on growing their businesses. We look forward to continuing our collaborative partnership with Yapily.”

Leveraging its direct and deep connections with many of the UK’s largest banks, Yapily is the first Open Banking infrastructure provider to test and release Bulk Payments functionality for 7 financial institutions’ in the UK. 

__Stefano Vaccino, CEO of Yapily said,__ “We’ve seen a real, increasing demand from our customers for bulk payments capabilities. We’re proud to say that after some hard work, we’ve built a reliable Bulk Payments feature for our customers in the UK. We’ve been lucky to work with pioneering clients like Comma who have supported us in stress-testing the functionality so we can deliver the most robust service possible. 

“What might seem on the surface to be a simple implementation of the required endpoints, has been a huge team effort, and a big learning curve for us as an Open Banking infrastructure provider. We’re already working on rolling this out into Europe and we’re excited to be working with Comma and other customers on developing even further.” 

Yapily’s Bulk Payment service will be rolled out to customers in Germany in the coming months, and will look to power new bulk payments propositions with more European customers in the future.

---

__About Yapily__ 
Yapily is an Open Banking infrastructure provider, allowing companies to seamlessly access financial data and initiate payments. Designed and built for Open Finance, Yapily enables better and fairer financial products for everyone.

The company has raised $18.4m in funding to date, and provides infrastructure for industry leaders including American Express, Intuit Quickbooks, Moneyfarm and BUX. Headquartered in London, UK, Yapily employs over 90 people and continues to scale rapidly. 

__About Comma__ 
Comma is an open banking bulk payment system - the first of its kind. It handles the boring but important stuff - bills, salaries, and taxes - for small and micro businesses who don't have corporate banking. We get to small businesses through bookkeepers and accountants by enabling payment services.

The company is Silicon Valley backed and headquartered in the UK. Although only a young company, It is already used by dozens of accounting and bookkeeping firms across the UK to pay. Close to £250,000 has already been transferred so far using the bulk payments API. 


Yapily launches Bulk Payments service with Comma in the UK

Yapily, the leading Open Banking infrastructure provider, has today announced the launch of its new Open Banking Bulk Payments service, with Comma, the SME payments platform, already live and benefiting from the service in the UK. 

In a successful modern business, the happiness of the people working in it is the most important business priority. There is a real understanding from the management team that we need to look after our people, to look after our customers, which in turn builds a great business. The Yapily leadership team is very passionate about diversity - we have 24 different nationalities amongst our 90+ Yapsters and 25% of our people are from black, asian, mixed and other ethnic backgrounds, we’re also tracking social mobility amongst our people. There is a lot of work to do but we’re passionate about improving life for all our Yapsters and making sure Yapily is a company that is a truly inclusive and a great place to work. 

## What are the main responsibilities of The People Team?

The People Team is responsible for the experience that people have when they work at Yapily. We want our team to have their careers and their lives positively impacted through working with us. It’s a very ambitious target! 

Traditionally HR has been responsible for the ‘processes’ that people go through at different stages of their employment. Being a people professional is more about focusing on the individuals we have hired and ensuring they thrive both professionally and personally, in the mutual best interests of both the company and the individual. Our work is varied, from ensuring we hire the best talent from all parts of our society, to employee benefits, creating strategies for developing our talent, developing wellbeing initiatives and everything else in between. 

It is not easy meeting every one of our diversity goals as fast as we would like to. We don’t have a huge team tackling these initiatives like many large corporations, but we do have the ability to make real change. Working in a start-up is great because of the variety of projects that we get to work on and in particular, working so closely with the people who are building our business; designing solutions and initiatives that work for them.

## What has been done so far and what is next?

Our main goal for the first 12 months has been to set up The People Team and to help the business scale efficiently, putting strategies and processes in place to support the development of our team and attract new talent. 

Since The People Team was introduced at Yapily, we’ve conducted a lot of surveys and have listened to feedback about how people are feeling, to get data on where we should improve. After assessing the initial feedback we got from the team, we decided to tackle these projects:

### Structured onboarding programmes
As the last year has proven, virtual onboarding needs to be planned and executed just as efficiently as in-person onboarding. So we’ve designed and implemented onboarding programmes that are specific to departments/functions in the business. This helps the new members of the team learn about Yapily, get to know the business/team and settle in smoothly.

### Talent development programme for our people managers
As we grow as a business, we want to empower our people managers and their teams to be the best they can be. We’ve introduced training and development to ensure that our people managers have the toolkit and support needed to lead and develop and inspire their teams effectively.

### Improved our pension scheme
Based on feedback we got from the team earlier this year, we’re implementing a salary exchange scheme and we have moved pension providers to ensure our team gets the best return on their pension. 

### Formal pay reviews and career development conversations
We’ve successfully initiated annual pay reviews and are now encouraging monthly career development conversations. This is to ensure that we’re considering what each team member values, wants to learn and achieve from their career. 

### Regular feedback loop
We’ve introduced a regular timeline of internal surveys and feedback sessions, so that the team has the opportunity to shape our future People initiatives. 

Next, the team will be working on diversity initiatives with a particular focus on inclusion and gender diversity. We’ll be looking at increasing our parental leave provisions and developing our Learning & Development agenda. 

### A quick note from the team:

Katie Kyle, People Lead at Yapily: "It’s humbling that so many people want to develop their careers with us and we take that responsibility seriously and are working hard to develop a great place for them to thrive."

Mary Kawa, People Coordinator at Yapily: "Although I’m new to the People team, it’s clear to see that Yapily is committed to engaging our Yapsters and supporting their development. This human approach is what drew me in and what really makes Yapily stand out."

People and Talent at Yapily

The People Team is responsible for the experience that people have when they work at Yapily. We want our team to have their careers and their lives positively impacted through working with us. It’s a very ambitious target!

In the year that HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative has come into effect, we're finally taking the first significant step towards paperless and digital first tax collection. MTD encourages individuals to keep validated digital tax records on their chosen accounting software, with the aim of encouraging business owners to eventually go paperless. It makes tax administration more effective, more efficient and easier for businesses to stay on top of their affairs.

## What are the problems associated with outdated accounting software and manual processes?

Usually, end users will have to log into various online banking applications and download individual statements for given time periods, then upload them into the accounting software. In some cases users have to convert files to match upload requirements, or there are additional manual inputs which can also be prone to human error. These manual processes lead to a regular and unavoidable time investment for tax submissions or reconciliation. 

## What can accounting software providers do to support SMEs?

Accounting software providers now have the power to reduce the amount of time that businesses and self-employed individuals spend processing information manually. Open Banking powered software can streamline processes for SMEs and the self-employed by providing real time feeds directly from the users bank accounts. In practice, this would unlock real-time visibility across all accounts in one accounting application; therefore reducing time spent on reconciliation and cash flow management. 

Giving users the option to link multiple bank accounts and share transaction data through Open Banking, will enable automated accounting processes - speeding up tax returns and enabling users to benefit from actionable insights based on up to date financial data. Intuit Quickbooks and IRIS Kashflow are two of the leading providers already utilising Open Banking in their platforms.

Click here to read more about using [Open Banking for account aggregation](https://www.yapily.com/blog/what-is-account-aggregation/).

### The timeline for rollout of MTD is as follows: 

Now - VAT-registered businesses with a taxable turnover above the VAT threshold of £85,000 need to keep digital records and submit digital VAT returns using compatible software.

From April 2022 - VAT-registered businesses with a taxable turnover below £85,000 will be required to follow Making Tax digital rules for their first return.

From April 2023 - Self-employed businesses and landlords with annual business or property income above £10,000 will need to follow the rules for MTD for Income Tax from their next accounting period.

Since the consultation on MTD for corporation tax, the government will provide businesses with an opportunity to take part in a pilot for Making Tax Digital for Corporation Tax and will not mandate its usage before 2026.

[You can find more information on the deadlines and official government requirements here](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-tax-digital/overview-of-making-tax-digital).

Eventually, MTD will apply to all businesses and self-employed individuals. This move towards digital services powered by Open Banking will eliminate human error, is more convenient and will save time for anyone submitting VAT or tax returns in future.


Making Tax Digital with Open Banking

In the year that HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative has come into effect, we're finally taking the first significant step towards paperless and digital first tax collection. Find out more how accounting software providers can utilise Open Banking.

Back in May 2020 we shared that we had [launched in Germany](https://www.yapily.com/blog/the-yapily-platform-is-live-in-germany/), with coverage across 80% of consumer retail bank accounts. This initial coverage included Deutsche Bank, Noris Bank, Commerzbank, N26, ING, Unicredit (for both retail and business customers) - as well as all Sparkassen and Landesbanken, which are regional banks across Germany totalling nearly 400 separate institutions. We were very happy with this coverage as a base for our customers in Germany, but the more we got to know the market, we knew that 80% wasn’t good enough for a fintech market that was buzzing with potential. So we decided to grow our coverage, ensuring further support for the future implementation of newly available [Open Banking](https://yapily.com) features.

## Our Coverage

Once we had a foothold in the region, we understood the fragmented banking landscape within Germany and we wanted to further expand our coverage to help serve our customers better. We quickly added Comdirect, Consorsbank, and also migrated N26 from their depreciated API to their newest API. We then wanted to focus on three banks giving excellent coverage across Germany, but posing an entirely new technical challenge: Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken, Postbank and Deutsche Kreditbank (DKB) - Embedded Flow banks.

### Developing further support for desired Open Banking features

You may have read our previous article on the launch of [Yapily in Austria](https://www.yapily.com/blog/were-live-in-austria/), where we discussed some of the technical differences of embedded flow as an authentication method. From a technical build perspective, we spent a lot of time redesigning our API integration for embedded flow banks, to make sure it was suitable for all the coverage we wanted in Germany, meanwhile ensuring that it would work for new banks we hadn’t yet come across. 

In our article last year we described how German bank integrations are always in the Next Gen PSD2 Berlin Group API standard, and the variety and breadth that the API standard provides. It means that each bank has a bespoke implementation, and similarly, each bank’s embedded flow implementation is different. We’ve worked really hard to normalise the embedded flow journey for Yapily customers, and we’re proud we can now offer Embedded and Redirect authorisation flow banks side by side in our Germany coverage, taking our total consumer account coverage to over 90%. Across all of our German coverage we support both AIS and PIS functionality which was a goal for our team based on the customer feedback we received post-launch.

## Growing Fintech Market 

Upon entering the German market last year, we learnt from both current and prospective clients about the type of features and coverage they needed to be successful. As a result of this feedback we rolled out business accounts as standard for many of our institutions, including Commerzbank, Sparkassen, Volks- & Raiffeisenbanken. In addition to that, we added periodic payment functionality, to ensure our clients had the full suite of payment types for all of their Germany coverage and most recently, we’re in the process of adding [bulk payments](https://www.yapily.com/blog/open-banking-bulk-payments/) functionality. Bulk payments will be specifically useful for payroll solutions and invoice management/accounting software.

### What to keep an eye on:

Bafin have recently approved PSD2 APIs, meaning it will become mandatory to use the approved APIs instead of legacy interfaces like FinTS. It is expected that Bafin will approve further APIs soon, which will accelerate the adoption of modern Open Banking infrastructure.


Germany market update

The latest German market update from Yapily. When we initially developed a foothold in the region, we understood the fragmented banking landscape within Germany and we wanted to further expand our coverage to help serve our customers better.

__London, 29 April 2021:__ New data, released by Yapily, the leading Open Banking infrastructure provider, finds all of the UK’s major retail banks have made significant improvements in [Open Banking API](https://yapily.com) response times over the last 12 months since Q1 2020. 

The data was compiled by Yapily through its [Open Banking infrastructure](https://yapily.com) and monitoring tools. It provides tangible proof that the UK’s high street banks are making positive strides to close the gap on the challenger banks and meet the demands of UK businesses and consumers by providing the Open Banking services they want and need to confidently recover and rebuild in the coming months. 

__UK banks % improvements in API response time from Q1 2020 to Q1 2021:__

- AIB: 63% faster
- Barclays: 50% faster 
- First Direct:  19% faster
- Halifax: 16% faster
- HSBC: 14% faster
- Lloyds: 21% faster
- M&S Bank: 52% faster
- Natwest: 39% faster
- RBS: 41% faster
- Santander: 22% faster

Since Q1 2020, Yapily has seen the number of Open Banking payments increase by 365%, on average, every quarter. This exponential growth in payments made through Open Banking APIs is tangible proof from the market that supports research predicting over two thirds (64%) of UK adults will be adopters by 2022, along with 71% of SMEs. 

Yapily’s data has also found the average API response time for UK retail banks has improved by 22% since Q1 2020 - speeding up from 693ms to 538ms in Q1 2021. This reflects the investment made by banks into enhancing their Open Banking APIs to meet growing demand from digital natives who expect nothing less than fast, secure and digital-first services from financial institutions. The positive strides made by the market as a whole demonstrate the UK’s retail banks are not content to be left behind as the challengers race ahead when it comes to customer experience. 

__Stefano Vaccino, CEO of Yapily comments on the data,__ “Our data, along with recent investment into the market and clear directives from regulators on the future of Open Banking and Open Finance, provides clear evidence there is significant confidence in the market. It’s undeniable that we are seeing, and will continue to see, exponential growth in Open Banking adoption. 

“Open Banking is the first step on the road to Open Finance, where open access has the potential to revolutionise how we live whether it’s paying for our shopping and utilities or managing our money or setting up a business. Over 3 million UK adults are now activity engaged with Open Banking solutions according to the OBIE to help get a better handle on their financial wellbeing. We’re excited to be at the forefront of this open financial revolution.”

For live updates on the performance of the bank’s APIs, [see here](https://apiscore.yapily.com/). 

---

__About Yapily__

Yapily is an Open Banking infrastructure provider, allowing companies to seamlessly access financial data and initiate payments. Designed and built for Open Finance, Yapily enables better and fairer financial products for everyone.

The company has raised $18.4m in funding to date, and provides infrastructure for industry leaders including American Express, Intuit Quickbooks, Moneyfarm and BUX. Headquartered in London, UK, Yapily employs over 90 people and continues to scale rapidly.


Yapily API data shows increased Open Banking adoption

New data, released by Yapily, the leading Open Banking infrastructure provider, finds all of the UK’s major retail banks have made significant improvements in Open Banking API response times over the last 12 months since Q1 2020. 

__London, UK, 27 April 2021:__ [Osu](https://www.payosu.com/index.html), a new invoicing and payment-app for the self-employed, has today announced its partnership with leading Open Banking infrastructure provider [Yapily](https://yapily.com). The partnership will see Osu provide self-employed professionals with a way to receive payments without fees or settlement delays.  

There are four and a half million self-employed professionals in the UK and until now, many of these businesses have had to rely on time-consuming payment processes riddled with frustrating issues to manage their day-to-day finances. At a time when the self-employed are already taking a hit due to the pandemic, eliminating the cost of getting paid and automating tasks such as sending invoices, accepting payments, and chasing customers is critical to managing their cashflow. 

Through harnessing Yapily’s [Open Banking infrastructure](https://yapily.com), Osu is enabling a seamless payments experience for its customers. By building it’s payment request flow on top of Yapily’s API infrastructure, rather than integrating with a card-based payment service provider, Osu removes traditional pain points affecting the self-employed when it comes to payments, such as high fees, settlement delays, and error-prone bank transfers. 

Osu, which launched in 2020, gives freelancers and the self-employed access to cutting edge payment tools. Through its easy-to use payments app, Osu lightens the load for self-employed professionals across the UK, taking care of their business and helping them achieve more for their efforts: more earnings, more time, and more opportunity to build. A virtual PA working behind the scenes for the self-employed who aren’t big enough to have wider teams. 

To date, the Osu app has helped over 1,000 self-employed professionals build and grow their operations, assisting them to successfully accept hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of payments. With a recent seeding round raising more than £2m, Osu now plans to increase its customer base to 10,000 active users by the end of 2021.

__Noam Nevo, CEO & Co-founder of Osu commented,__ “Our aim has always been to help the self-employed and empower them when it comes to managing payments - which in the current climate is more important than ever. Many of our customers are one-man bands or micro-businesses without dedicated finance or admin teams. Our app allows the self-employed to receive payments without fees or settlement delays so that they can carry on with their day-to-day with no worry of losing out on vital funds. Yapily’s infrastructure enables this to happen, so it was a no-brainer to partner with them.”

“We’re planning on introducing a host of new business management features this year, and with support from Yapily, we believe our offering will continue to make life easier for the self-employed  as they look to rebuild from a challenging year.”

__Stefano Vaccino, CEO of Yapily said,__ “This partnership is an exciting development for Open Banking and demonstrates the benefits our infrastructure can bring to the changing - and growing - landscape of the self-employed. 

“The past year has been exceptionally challenging for the self-employed, so providing them with the right tools to alleviate financial stresses is critical for supporting their recovery. Open Banking removes hidden payment fees and allows these professionals to focus their time and effort on doing what they love.

“Our partnership with Osu very much aligns with our mission of driving financial inclusion. We’re looking forward to how this partnership develops into other innovative solutions that will, no doubt, prove invaluable to business owners.”

---

__About Yapily (yapily.com)__

Yapily is an enterprise connectivity provider, allowing companies to share financial data and access payment infrastructure. Designed and built for Open Finance, Yapily enables fairer and better financial products for everyone. 

The company has raised $18.4m in funding to date, and provides infrastructure for industry leaders including American Express, Intuit Quickbooks, Moneyfarm and BUX. Headquartered in London, UK, Yapily employs over 80 people and continues to scale rapidly. 

__About Osu (osu.com)__

Osu is a subscription-based invoicing and payment app for the self-employed. With instant payments, zero transaction fees, invoicing, automated reminders, and more features coming soon, Osu is helping empower the self-employed to take better control of their payment management. Users receive a 30-day free trial of the Osu app with no commitment and no need to provide any card details. After 30 days, they have a choice of 3 monthly plans of £4.99 (Lite), £9.99 (Standard), or £19.99 (Pro).      

Osu and Yapily enable the self-employed to focus on growth by eliminating payments fees, in new partnership.

Osu, a new invoicing and payment-app for the self-employed, has announced its partnership with leading Open Banking infrastructure provider Yapily. Providing self-employed professionals with a way to receive payments without fees or settlement delays. 

__London, UK, 20 April 2021:__ FinTech scale-up AccessPay is pioneering a new Treasury solution for corporates, using [Open Banking](https://yapily.com). Enabled by Yapily, a leading [Open Banking infrastructure](https://yapily.com) provider, it will provide thousands of UK businesses real-time visibility into their cash position and transaction flows.

The integration enables AccessPay users to connect and aggregate their entire corporate banking estate at the click of a button. This not only reduces the friction of using multiple systems, but significantly decreases the time-to-value for corporates from months to minutes. The ability to join together data from multiple connectivity channels, means AccessPay can deliver a global solution, whilst enhancing the user experience within the EEA.

Until now, some corporates relied on outdated and manual processes to reconcile payments and manage cash across several company accounts. This presented costly challenges when monitoring financial performance and cash management. As the world economy recovers from the impact of Covid-19, treasury teams need one centralised place to access reliable, secure financial data to support their businesses. 

Harnessing Yapily’s Open Banking infrastructure, AccessPay has expanded its cash management product to thousands of mid-market and enterprise businesses. This is the first use-case of Open Banking in corporate cash management to be brought to market and demonstrates how tech innovation is creating better services for businesses.

The collaboration between these two UK-based FinTechs will enable thousands of treasury and finance teams to make more informed financial decisions, as well as establishing reliable, automated processes around reconciliation, payroll and forecasting of company cash.

Yapily’s infrastructure will provide AccessPay’s customers, such as ITV, NSG and Imperial College London, with access to real-time banking data. This removes the need to manually download data using spreadsheets, which is error-prone, time-consuming and costly. Surfacing the transaction data that treasury operations teams need to successfully support their businesses in making the right financial decisions, within one single view. 

__Winston Pearson, Senior Product Manager at AccessPay said:__ “We are delighted to be working with Yapily, another fast-growth FinTech, to drive digital transformation in the corporate space. 

“Businesses and banks simply aren’t as connected as they should be in today’s global business landscape. Treasury and finance teams, the driving force of today’s corporate operations, need one central place to automate banking operations for complete visibility and control.

“With Yapily’s support and guidance, we’re able to expand our cash management solution to more of the market at this pace and scale. The integration has transformed a cumbersome process into a frictionless data flow for our customers. 

“Thanks to Yapily’s industry-leading infrastructure and strong relationships with banks across Europe, we’ve been able to deliver a solution previously reserved for the few, to the masses.”

__Stefano Vaccino, CEO of Yapily said:__ “Leveraging our Open Banking infrastructure in this way has enabled AccessPay to move faster and disrupt the corporate business landscape. This is an exciting development for Open Banking and demonstrates the benefits the technology brings to the ecosystem. 

“Through partnering with AccessPay, we’re continuing our mission to expand the reach of Open Banking to a wide range of businesses. We look forward to developing our partnership with AccessPay and helping them continue to scale to new heights.”

AccessPay’s cash management service, enhanced by Open Banking, has been launched to the mid-market in the UK, and a broader European roll-out is planned later this year. 

---

__About [Yapily](https://yapily.com)__ 

Yapily is an Open Banking infrastructure provider, allowing companies to seamlessly access financial data and initiate payments. Designed and built for Open Finance, Yapily enables better and fairer financial products for everyone.

The company has raised $18.4m in funding to date, and provides infrastructure for industry leaders including American Express, Intuit Quickbooks, Moneyfarm and BUX. Headquartered in London, UK, Yapily employs over 80 people and continues to scale rapidly. 

__About [AccessPay](https://www.accesspay.com)__

AccessPay specialises in automating corporate banking operations. The platform is used by thousands of companies, banks and other FinTechs to automate their global payments, collections, and cash management processes. With 80 staff based in Manchester, AccessPay is one of the fastest growing B2B FinTechs in the UK.


AccessPay and Yapily partner to re-define corporate cash management

FinTech scale-up AccessPay is pioneering a new Treasury solution for corporates, enabled by Yapily, a leading Open Banking infrastructure provider. It will provide thousands of UK businesses real-time visibility into their cash position and transactions.

It is not too long ago (approximately 3 years), when the UK became the leader in [Open Banking](https://yapily.com) and since then many countries around the world have aimed to imitate the UK example. A combination of regulatory developments (PSD2 in the EU and the formation of the OBIE in the UK) have meant that customer current account data was opened up to third party providers (TPPs), that are now able to use that data to [initiate payments](https://yapily.com/solutions/payments) or aggregate financial information for consumers and present them with a partial picture of their financial lives. Driven by regulatory efforts to standardise technical standards for sharing that data, the UK has experienced a higher adoption rate of these services compared to the EU. So what comes next?

On the 17th December 2019, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) consulted on the concept of [Open Finance](https://www.yapily.com/blog/3-examples-of-what-open-finance-can-do-right-now/) - an initiative aimed at giving back full control of financial data to consumers and allowing them to have a more accurate picture of their financial state. This means that third party providers (TPPs), with their customers’ consent, will be able to gain access to mortgage, investment, insurance, savings, pension and potentially other more granular data. [Open Banking](https://yapily.com) has only opened up current account information, which was a substantial first step, but it is not sufficient to enable customers to fully plan their financial future or have full control over their financial decisions. 

We discussed the various use cases arising from Open Finance previously in a whitepaper available [here.](https://www.yapily.com/openfinance/) To offer some short examples, through Open Finance, consumers can aggregate their pensions under one umbrella and make an informed decision on whether they should put more money in their pension pot. Consumers could also receive personalised financial services and advice. Based on the FCA’s views, consumers could even choose to instruct their savings provider to switch their savings pot to a different product, if there was a better alternative. Looking ahead, beyond the fantastic proposition of Open Finance, questions remain around how these use cases are prioritised, how they should be implemented and what is the role of the regulator in this space. 

### Making the case for the revolution

The problem statement that Open Finance is trying to address is two fold: __(a)__ the complexity of accessing data and changing/switching to personalised financial services and __(b)__ the general lack of consumer engagement with their financial products. Making the Open Finance consumer journey smoother and more intuitive is likely to solve both of these problems, whilst ensuring that businesses and consumers do not purchase financial products that are not suitable for them. For example, the FCA has recently found that around 2,000 pension advisers have given potentially unsuitable advice on pension transfers due to inadequate fact finding. Had these advisers had access to more data about their customers then it is likely that the advice provided would have been more suitable. 

Overall, the benefits from Open Finance can be classified into four main categories:

__Innovation:__ financial products can be better tailored to suit individual circumstances and needs. This could in turn mean lower premiums for some customers.

__Competition:__ through the provision of more innovative customer services, market players would have to be more competitive to entice customers.
Advice: advisers will have access to a wider pool of information about their customers’ financial lives, thus allowing them to offer more tailored and relevant advice.

__Access:__ more information about a potential consumer can lead to previously excluded customers gaining access to basic financial services. The FCA has estimated that about 1.3 million UK adults were 'unbanked' in 2019. Open Finance is able to solve this issue to a great extent by utilising data, enabling consumers who would typically not have access to a basic financial services to receive them. 

With all this in mind, it is evident that Open Finance can bring about a revolution in the way that we look at financial services. Both the EU and other countries around the world have initiated discussions on when and how best to implement such initiatives. 

### A prioritisation matrix fit for the future

The FCA has recently published its feedback statement on its vision for Open Finance. The key activities that the regulator has identified as potential drivers of this initiative were: pensions, investments, savings and credit. This is a sensible approach as it encompasses the majority of financial activities of a consumer. But can it all be achieved at the same time or would a more sequential approach make more sense? 

We propose that the UK financial ecosystem is well equipped to deliver these changes simultaneously insofar as sufficient coordination and planning are built into the roadmap. Simultaneity of implementation is important for two key reasons:

__Demand for such services:__ the entire idea of Open Finance is built around the concept of providing a holistic view of financial profiles. If even one of the key sectors identified by the FCA were missing, it would mean that the full financial view would be incomplete. A financial advisor for example, would find it more challenging to offer fully tailored financial advice on investments if they do not have information on the pension contributions of their customer. An insurance provider may not be able to estimate the appropriate premium if they do not have information about credit worthiness or mortgages held by the customer. Partial information is, of course, less valuable than full information, so sequential implementation may mean that Open Finance only takes off once all of the recommended financial services are added under its umbrella.

__Lessons from Open Banking:__ the UK finds itself in a unique position compared to the rest of the world due to the success story delivered by the CMA and the Open Banking Implementation Entity. Open Finance would be standing on the shoulders of giants in this case as both the industry and regulators have a great level of expertise by now on how to form the main foundations for open initiatives: setting technical standards, overseeing compliance, delivering smooth user journeys. These are all lessons that the UK could apply to the implementation of Open Finance and place itself ahead of the curve. In addition, the future entity that will be overseeing the UK’s Open Banking remedies is currently being considered by the CMA. The sooner the Open Finance initiatives are formed, the more natural and organic the integration of those services could be under the future entity’s remit.

### The regulator’s role

The topic of data access, control and sharing has received unprecedented attention from regulators and public policy bodies. It is another indication of the importance of this topic but also an acknowledgement that a coordinated approach is necessary in order to deliver all its benefits.

Looking beyond the FCA’s recent feedback statement on Open Finance, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said that it will legislate to make it possible to require industry involvement in Smart Data initiatives, including Open Finance. The Kalifa Review, commissioned by HM Treasury also acknowledges the importance of Open Finance in determining the future of the fintech sector in the UK and proposes an alliance between industry and government to deliver that objective. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has focused its efforts on delivering a digital identity that would support a smoother implementation of open initiatives such as Open Finance. Clearly a crowded regulatory space with many stakeholders and various visions.

It is against this backdrop that we consider that a centralised approach needs to be taken in order to ensure the success of Open Finance. The FCA, being the main regulator for most of the firms that would deliver this initiative should take the driver's seat here. It not only has the expertise in financial services but also has the powers to implement, supervise and enforce legislative requirements on the ecosystem. As is proposed in the feedback statement, the regulator will work alongside both the industry and other stakeholders to legislate and mandate this initiative. 

We strongly believe that without a legal framework, it is unlikely that the ecosystem would deliver in a timely manner as the commercial incentives are not there just yet. This is exactly why we support a stronger sense of urgency in this domain. We consider that a clear roadmap needs to be put forward, with key milestones that the industry should deliver. Alongside the roadmap, a clear distinction of supervisory remits and regulatory roles in supporting its implementation need to be agreed with other public policy bodies. Again, regulatory efforts, although delivered by different regulators, need to work towards a common goal and follow the FCA’s vision for this sector. Finally, lessons from the Open Banking experience need to be fully absorbed into the delivery of Open Finance: consumers to be placed at the forefront and the industry playing field needs to be leveled, through the comprehensive legislative infrastructure. 


The Open Finance Revolution

Open Banking has only opened up current account information, which was a substantial first step, but it is not sufficient to enable customers to fully plan their finances or have full control over their financial decisions. How can Open Finance help?

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