The President/Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Dr. Ken Opara, has said that open banking initiatives are helping to create services to enable consumers to make better financial decisions on core payments and borrowings.

They also impact the savings culture of customers, he said.

Opara spoke at the CIBN’s Advocacy Dialogue Series 6 event with the theme, ‘Driving innovation through open banking: Exploring challenges and opportunities for growth’.

“By providing a secure way for banks to share financial data and services with third-party providers such as fintechs, with customers’ consent, innovations driven by open banking initiatives have continued to drive service expansions, by creating services seeking to help consumers to make better financial decisions on core payments and borrowings, as well as impacting the savings culture of customers and helping them to build a financial cushion,” he sai

He said the programme was specially created to empower various stakeholders with knowledge on emerging and evolving issues within the banking and financial industry sector of the economy.

“The series typically features subject matter experts and operators to generate ideas that can help individuals and organisations make better and informed decisions,” he said.

The past editions of the series, he said, had been impactful, availing participants insights into the various areas that were pertinent to the banking industry and other sectors of the economy.

According to him, open banking was now being adopted in various regions around the world, and as a matter of fact, more than 87 per cent of countries had established some form of open banking APIs in the banking industry.

He said in recognition of the significance of the innovations and in a bid to safeguard the Nigerian financial system, the Central Bank of Nigeria released a series of circulars aimed at guiding the implementation of open banking in the country.

The frameworks, he said, included the regulatory framework for implementation released in February 2021, and most recently, the operational guidelines released in May 2022.

“Despite the wide adoption of open banking, it is still very much in its infancy stage, however, demand is growing,” he said.