In today’s financial landscape, open finance is no longer a future concept; it’s a present-day imperative. The financial institutions that prioritize open finance are using it to scale smarter, convert more customers, and grow responsibly.
Open finance is consumer-driven and growing fast
Open finance in the U.S. has evolved rapidly, driven largely by consumer behavior. Millions of people now expect to link their financial accounts to apps and services that help them manage their finances better, whether budgeting, borrowing, investing, or paying.
The growth speaks volumes: more than 114 million accounts are now connected through APIs aligned to the FDX standard, a remarkable 50% increase from the comparable figure of 76 million a year ago.
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Drawing from their extensive implementation experience across financial institutions of all sizes, industry leaders from Akoya and Nova Credit share actionable insights on building resilient, scalable cash flow data infrastructure that drives both business metrics and financial inclusion. Watch on demand now.
Open finance as infrastructure
Treating open finance as infrastructure enables use cases that include lending, payments, account opening, financial planning, and more.
When properly architected, open finance:
- Powers new revenue streams
- Improves customer experience and trust
- Reduces fraud and manual processing costs
- Expands access to credit and financial tools
Platform architecture always wins
One-off integrations might check a box for a specific use case, but they won’t scale. The most successful institutions take a platform-first approach, building shared infrastructure that supports multiple lines of business.
That architecture includes a centralized data team managing both data-in and data-out, standardized APIs (such as those based on FDX standards) and developer portals to streamline third-party onboarding, and unified decision engines and analytics that transform raw data into actionable insights.
This model improves efficiency, speeds time to value, and ensures internal consistency across departments and use cases.
Why redundancy matters: The case for multi-source connectivity
In mission-critical applications like lending or payments, relying on a single data source is risky. If an aggregator goes down, so does your workflow. Redundancy isn’t a “nice to have”; it’s table stakes.
Multi-source architecture delivers:
- Higher uptime and more consistent coverage
- Lower latency and better performance
- Smarter routing when a connection fails
The results speak for themselves. In lending use cases, a multi-source setup can increase conversion by 1.5 to 2x compared to single-source architectures.
Why UX must be treated as core infrastructure
Too often, user experience is treated as a separate track from technical implementation. That’s a mistake. In open finance, UX is part of the infrastructure.
Best-in-class experiences focus on three key pillars: providing clear incentives by explaining the benefits of linking accounts, building trust and control by showing users exactly what data is shared and giving them the ability to revoke access at any time.
The payoff? Higher conversion, improved customer satisfaction, and stronger long-term trust.
Cash flow underwriting: The breakout use case
One of the most impactful use cases for open finance is cash flow underwriting. By analyzing transaction-level data, lenders can approve creditworthy consumers who don’t qualify under traditional credit scoring models.
Benefits include approval rate increases among previously declined applicants, improved loss rates compared to traditional credit assessment methods, and greater financial inclusion through expanded addressable markets. The lesson: open finance isn’t just better for your systems — it’s better for your customers.
Measuring ROI: What to track
To get buy-in across the business, institutions need a clear framework to measure ROI.
Revenue outcomes from open finance investments include increased approval and origination rates, especially among previously underserved segments.
Enhanced connectivity and optimized user experiences also drive higher conversion rates, while greater transparency and control around data sharing contribute to stronger customer trust and retention.
Cost savings emerge through fewer manual verifications, reduced fraud and identity-related losses, and simplified operations via consolidated vendor management. These efficiencies free up resources and reduce overhead across compliance, onboarding, and customer support teams.
Strategic impact is perhaps the most transformative. Open finance infrastructure lays the groundwork for future use cases, enabling faster time to market for new products and services. It also positions institutions to stay ahead of shifting regulatory landscapes and rising consumer expectations around data rights and digital experiences.
Open finance is now
The opportunity is clear. Open finance is more than regulation — it’s the foundation for modern financial services. The institutions that get ahead now, building scalable, secure, consumer-centric infrastructure, will be the ones who define the next chapter in open finance.
Ready to architect your open finance strategy? Learn more here..
