Open Banking for Expats: Payment Initiation and Account Aggregation Explained

Open banking represents one of the most significant structural changes in financial services in a generation. By requiring banks to share customer data with authorised third parties (with customer consent), regulators in the UK and EU have created an infrastructure that enables a genuinely new generation of financial management tools. For internationally mobile people managing accounts across multiple countries, these tools offer real benefits — alongside real limitations that are important to understand.

What Open Banking Is

At its core, open banking is a regulatory mandate. Banks are required to maintain Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that allow authorised third-party providers to access account data and initiate payments on behalf of customers, subject to explicit customer consent.

This creates two distinct capabilities:

Account Information Services (AIS): A third-party app (an aggregator) can read the balance and transaction history of your bank accounts across multiple institutions. With your consent, your Barclays current account, HSBC savings account, and NatWest business account can all be visible in a single app, in real time.

Payment Initiation Services (PIS): A third party can instruct your bank to make a payment directly from your account, again with your consent. This bypasses the card networks — no Visa or Mastercard infrastructure required.

The UK Framework

The UK open banking framework was mandated by the Competition and Markets Authority following the 2016 retail banking investigation. The nine largest UK banks were required to implement open banking APIs from 2018. The Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) standardised the technical and security approach.

The UK's framework is now mature. Nearly all UK banks and building societies have compliant APIs. The ecosystem of third-party providers is extensive: aggregation apps such as Moneyhub, Emma, and Money Dashboard; accounting integrations; payment initiation services for high-value transactions; and fintech products built on open banking infrastructure.

The FCA maintains a register of authorised Account Information Service Providers and Payment Initiation Service Providers. Only use firms on this register for open banking services.

The EU Framework: PSD2

The EU's equivalent to open banking is the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2), which applied from January 2018 (with its strong customer authentication requirements phased in from 2019). Like the UK framework, PSD2 requires EU banks to allow authorised third parties to access account data and initiate payments with customer consent.

Post-Brexit, the UK and EU frameworks are separate but structurally similar. The technical standards are broadly compatible, and some providers operate across both UK and EU, offering aggregation of accounts in both jurisdictions.

Benefits for Internationally Mobile People

Unified visibility: The most immediate benefit for expats with accounts in multiple countries is the ability to see all balances in one place. Rather than logging into four banking apps, an aggregation service can show your UK current account, UK savings account, and EU accounts simultaneously. This simplifies financial management considerably.

Faster payment initiation: Payment initiation is particularly valuable for high-value transactions where card fees are prohibitive. A property deposit or school fee payment initiated directly from your bank account avoids card processing fees (typically 0.5–2.5% for card payments) and can settle faster than a cheque or manual bank transfer.

Better accounting integration: For self-employed expats and business owners, open banking feeds into accounting software (Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent) automatically, eliminating manual bank statement imports and reconciliation. This is valuable across borders where different banks have different data export formats.

Smarter spending analysis: Aggregation apps that can see all your accounts give you a genuinely complete view of your spending across all your banking relationships — not just the transactions in the app's own account.

The Limitations for Expats with Global Accounts

Open banking's cross-border reach is real but limited. The current position:

UK banks: Covered by UK open banking. Most major UK banks (Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander UK, major building societies, Monzo, Starling, and others) are accessible via open banking APIs.

EU banks: Covered by PSD2. Banks in France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, and other EU members are accessible via PSD2 APIs. Some UK aggregation apps have extended coverage to EU banks.

UAE accounts: Not covered. The UAE Central Bank (CBUAE) is developing an open banking framework, but as of 2026 it is not operational in a way that integrates with UK or EU open banking infrastructure.

Singapore accounts: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has developed a Financial Data Exchange (SGFinDex) framework for domestic use, but it does not connect to UK or EU open banking.

Thailand, Cyprus, Switzerland: Not connected to UK or EU open banking frameworks in any meaningful way as of 2026.

For expats with accounts in markets outside the UK and EU, open banking aggregation requires manual bank statement imports or separate management — the benefits of automated aggregation are not available.

Payment Initiation for High-Value International Transactions

Payment initiation is particularly useful for transactions where the value is high and the timing is important. Common expat use cases:

Property transactions: Making a deposit or stage payment on a property purchase, initiated directly from your bank account, is faster and cheaper than a card payment and avoids the friction of setting up a payee on a new device.

International school fees: Many international schools now accept open banking payment initiation for term fee payments, reducing card processing costs for both parties.

Subscription and service payments: Any high-value recurring payment that currently uses a card can potentially be migrated to open banking payment initiation.

The limitation is that the payee must also be set up to receive open banking payments — which means the seller or recipient needs to have implemented payment initiation on their end.

The Future: Global Open Banking

The trajectory is towards greater global connectivity. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Canada, and several Asian jurisdictions are all developing open banking frameworks. As these mature, cross-border account aggregation and payment initiation will become possible in markets currently excluded.

The OECD and Financial Stability Board are also working towards interoperability standards — technical frameworks that would allow open banking in different jurisdictions to connect, creating genuine global financial data portability.

The realistic timeline for meaningful global open banking coverage — including major expat destinations in the Gulf and Asia — is probably 2027–2030 for early implementations.

Security and Consent

A common concern about open banking is security. The framework is designed with security as a first principle:

No credential sharing: Third-party providers never see your bank login details. Consent is granted by redirecting to your bank's own login interface and authorising the specific access requested.

Granular consent: You can grant access for a specific period (30 days, 90 days, ongoing) and revoke it at any time from within your bank's own app or settings.

Read-only data access: Account information access is read-only — a third party can see your account but cannot move money without a separate, explicit payment initiation consent each time.

Payment limits: Payment initiation is subject to your bank's own limits on outgoing payments and typically requires your bank's two-factor authentication to confirm.

Always use FCA-authorised providers. The FCA register at fca.org.uk confirms which firms are authorised to provide open banking services.

How Global Investments Can Help

Open banking is one component of a broader digital banking infrastructure that globally mobile clients need. Global Investments advises internationally mobile individuals on building a banking stack that takes advantage of these tools while managing the gaps in cross-border coverage appropriately.

Whether you are organising your finances ahead of a move abroad, managing accounts across multiple countries, or looking to streamline international property payments, our team can provide context on how these frameworks apply to your circumstances. Contact us to discuss.

This guide provides general information about open banking frameworks as of 2026. Open banking is an evolving area; regulatory frameworks, participating institutions, and third-party provider capabilities change frequently. Nothing in this guide constitutes financial, legal, or technology advice. Always verify that any open banking provider you use is authorised by the FCA or relevant equivalent authority in your jurisdiction.