What is Open Banking?
Open Banking gives you the choice to let regulated third party providers, known as TPPs, access your bank account data.
Third party providers can introduce you to new banking products and services. They could also give you a more detailed understanding of your accounts, and help you find new ways to make the most of your money.
Open Banking is designed to bring more competition and encourage innovation in financial services.
Giving third party providers access to your account is completely optional.
How Open Banking works
The features of Open Banking, which are offered by third party providers, can include:
- the ability for you to manage your company finances across multiple providers
- making payments directly from your bank, through a third party provider's app or platform
- product comparisons and recommendations to help you save money.
For third party providers to be able to offer any of these features, the provider will either:
- use specific software that can work in the background online or through a mobile app. This software talks to the software provided by the bank, allowing them to share information between each other
- use login details to access your bank account on your behalf and find the information they need to.
You must give your explicit permission to the provider before they can do either of these things. Third party providers must give you enough information to understand the nature of the service, how it will use your data and whether it will share your data with anyone else.
If you use online banking with your current account and the third party provider has registered with us you can grant access to your account information.
Safety and security
The Payment Services Directive (PSD2) includes standards on how accessing and sharing data should be undertaken securely, in order to ensure customers are protected from potential fraud and data misuse. Under data protection law, third party providers must protect customers’ data and PSD2 regulation requires these businesses to put further measures in place to keep customers’ security details safe and secure.
Only businesses and organisations regulated by the FCA or another relevant financial services regulator in the EU are allowed to provide Open Banking services. Third party providers are not permitted to take any action on any account without the explicit consent of the account holder.
The Bank has the right to deny a third party providers access if we have good reason to believe they are trying to access customer accounts in an unauthorised or fraudulent way.
If you choose to use Open Banking, please be aware that personal and financial information you share with third party providers is valuable to fraudsters. Remember to:
- be cautious when you receive seemingly random contact by telephone, email or social media. Fraudsters will pretend to be legitimate companies, so please be careful when anyone requests your personal or financial information
- double check that the third party provider you are providing your banking details to is legitimate and authorised. You can check the FCA register for a list of all authorised TPPs.
- avoid disclosing any personal or financial information if you don't know who you are talking to or suspect the provider isn't who they claim to be
- make sure you understand and agree with the level of access you are providing, what account data you will share, and how your information will be used.
Make a complaint
If you have a complaint about the service provided to you by the third party provider, contact them directly. If you have a complaint regarding the security of your accounts or behaviour of a third party provider that you think is in breach of the Data Protection Act, please contact us.
How do I provide Xero access to my account?
Xero is a regulated third party provider. To provide Xero with access, you need to request this via your Xero account. You can do this by following these steps:
- if you haven't already, add your bank account in Xero. Select 'The Co-operative Bank (UK)' as the bank name
- find your Co-operative Bank account on your Xero dashboard
- click 'Get Bank Feeds'.
Follow this Xero guide to adding your account if you need more information.
Can I use my account(s) normally if I don’t consent to third party providers?
Yes, you can use your account as you normally would.
My chosen third party provider (TPP) can’t access my account. What can I do?
- Your chosen third party provider (TPP) may not be registered with us. Please ask them whether they have registered with us since we updated our open banking solution.
- Your consent to allow a TPP access to your account expires after 90 days. You will need to give your consent again after 90 days. You will need to contact your TPP to do this.
How do I give third party providers (TPPs) access to my account?
- Go to your chosen third party provider (TPP)’s website
- Look for a drop-down menu on their website, listing banks the TPP works with
- Select The Co-operative Bank from the drop-down menu
- Follow the instructions the TPP gives you.
If The Co-operative Bank is not in the TPP’s list
If The Co-operative Bank is not in the list, contact the TPP and tell them that you would like them to work with The Co-operative Bank. The TPP will need to on-board with The Co-operative Bank before you can give them access to your account.
What happens after I’ve asked for a third party provider (TPP) to have access to my account?
Your chosen third party provider (TPP) will manage the next steps.
We will treat any instructions from a TPP as if they are from you.
How can I stop a third party provider (TPP) accessing my account?
- Tell your third party provider (TPP) that you are stopping their access to your account
- Log in to your account
- Select 'Manage open banking consents' from the shortcuts menu on the dashboard
- Select the name of the third party provider (TPP)
- Select 'Action'
- Select 'Cancel consent'
- Read the consent cancellation confirmation.
Information for third party providers
If you're a third party provider and want to work with us, please read our information for third party providers.