INTERMEDIATE OUTCOMES 1 (ADOPTION)

Headlines

Successful API calls have grown by over 450% between 2019 and 2020, indicating strong growth in end user adoption
Improved Decision Making represented an estimated 60 – 70% of successful API calls in December 2020
Increased Savings & Investments represented an estimated 10 – 20% of successful API calls in December 2020, despite only accounting for 4 out of 109 propositions in market
We estimate that 5 - 6% of digitally enabled consumers and small businesses used open banking in December 2020
Penetration in January 2020 was 2 - 3% so this figure has doubled during 2020

Methodology

The second core element of this CEF Report is the first part of what are referred to as Intermediate Outcomes in the Theory of Change. This is described as: “Experience: consumers are using technologically-enabled financial products and services that are suited to their needs and circumstances”. We deal with the second part of Intermediate Outcomes in Section 5.

Data availability is an inherent challenge in this ecosystem, particularly given that end users are frequently not aware of the underlying technology on which the service they are using is built. This limitation makes it extremely difficult to use traditional end user research techniques to measure adoption.

We have therefore used a range of proxies to indicate adoption by end users, including API volumes and an estimate of penetration of the digitally enabled end user base based on data provided by the CMA93 banks and building societies.

3The nine largest banks and building societies in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, based on the volume of personal and business current accounts.