The introduction of Open Banking for Revolut customers is one of the many steps the global fintech is taking to diversify and expand its offering.
Revolut is now unarguably the most popular banking option for Irish customers, outside the more traditional bricks and mortar financial avenues of course.
Since launching in 2015 the global fintech has gone from strength to strength and recently announced reaching 1 million customers here in Ireland.
Its growth continues today with the announcement that Irish customers can now access their Irish bank account information through the Revolut app, all thanks to a feature called 'Open Banking'.
Never heard of Open Banking before? Here’s what customers can expect.
What’s changing?
Revolut has launched Open Banking for customers nationwide, a service which connects users' Irish bank accounts to Revolut and allows customers to see all of their other balances and transactions securely from within the Revolut app.
Customers of AIB, Bank of Ireland, Ulster Bank, and Permanent TSB can all link their accounts to Revolut from today, while Irish business customers can link their Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB business bank accounts to Revolut Business.
With the launch of Open Banking, Revolut customers will be able to see all of their financial information in one place, simultaneously being able to track their spending and set budgeting controls for their Revolut and Irish bank accounts. The increased visibility of one's financial information is a stepping stone of Open Banking to help make banking much more easy to use, safe, and transparent.
Revolut also announced it has plans to allow Irish customers to add money to Revolut via Open Banking, but no timeline was given.
Speaking on the launch of Open Banking for Revolut customers in Ireland was Joshua Fernandes, Product Owner for Open Banking at Revolut:
“With the rollout of our Open Banking feature, our retail and business customers in Ireland can now view and manage multiple Irish bank accounts, enabling them to interpret their day to day spending across all of their accounts, with the added benefit of making our offering even more relevant, user-friendly, faster and more cost-efficient for our customers.
"We’re delighted to see that regulation that facilitates Open Banking is creating the potential to change our financial landscape for the better, and I’m proud that Revolut and TrueLayer are at the forefront of this experience.”
What exactly is Open Banking?
In summary, Open Banking is a financial services term used to describe the electronic sharing of financial information, made possible through the Second Payment Service Directive regulation, or PSD2, as well as the use of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) used by banking applications.
These APIs allow Third Party Providers (TPPs) to access your financial information efficiently and securely, and can be harnessed to make managing your finances more straightforward.
Revolut's new Open Banking offering has been built in partnership with leading provider of financial APIs TrueLayer and simultaneously marks TrueLayer’s launch into the Republic of Ireland.
Is it safe?
TPPs are regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) which means Open Banking is 100% safe and secure for customers. It works by Revolut, or more accurately a TPP (TrueLayer in this case), communicating with your banking app on your phone through the APIs.
If you don’t have another banking app on your phone you'll be asked to log in to your online banking service there and then. However, at no point does Revolut have access to your security information, so it’s 100% safe to use.
However, we should mention that you’ll be asked to consent to Open Banking before anything else happens, which is important as no TPP can access your information without your consent first.
You can also choose to stop sharing your data at any time under the strict data protection laws in place.
If you had any reservations about Revolut and its operations here in Ireland, check out our article and see why your money is safe with the online bank.
Increased convenience
The introduction of Open Banking is intended to streamline customer’s management of their day-to-day finances, making the process of checking your account transactions and balances a whole lot easier, but safe at the same time.
Open Banking is free for all Revolut customers, as is topping up your Revolut account, transferring money from an Irish Revolut account to other EU bank accounts, as well as transferring money to friends on Revolut.
The digital bank most recently announced it was decreasing its limit on foreign exchange fees for customers in a move that saw it being criticised for acting like a regular bank.
One of the most popular Revolut features for customers remains the lack of maintenance and transaction fees as encountered with traditional banks. There is still no charge for paying for goods or services via contactless, chip & PIN, or online with the fintech.
Revolut said in its most recent app update to customers that incoming updates are “all part of [Revolut] becoming a financial super app that gets you more from your money, every day” so we have no doubt there's more news on the way - stay tuned!
Stay in touch
Are you a Revolut customer? Will you be linking your existing bank accounts with Open Banking on Revolut? Do you think Open Banking is a good idea? We'd love to hear from you in the comments below.
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