Whilst most of us have no desire to return to 2020, there were some bright spots and FTT Open Finance was certainly one of them. It was somehow fitting that we ended our year with a virtual event that focused on the potential of being open when so much around us was closed.

We kicked off the day with a big picture view from Stefano Vaccino, Founder & CEO of Yapily. He shared his thoughts on the Open Economy – the world of possibilities it creates and some ideas as to how we might get there. From its roots in global free trade to its current grounding in the view that individuals/entities should be able to use whatever services they choose without barriers and to decide to share their data for their own benefit, he elucidated a compelling vision of an open and inter-connected world.

Thinking about the potential of Open Finance, what the future may hold and how to bring it to life, there were lively discussions across the day. The morning debate – Competition in an Open World – explored the ways to in which Open Banking has been implemented and leveraged to create better customer outcomes. The importance of regulatory drivers (and the implementation entity in the UK) and the role of APIs and partnerships have been crucial to success.

Looking beyond an exercise in compliance, the opportunity was still to be fully understood. Take up and use cases, for example, accelerated once the impact of lockdowns hit and were supported by growing ecosystems. Discussion of those new and evolving ecosystems took centre stage during the Open & Interdependent Ecosystems panel, as well in other conversation during the day.

Looking ahead to Open Finance, the value opportunity is wide open and evolving. That future trajectory, in the European markets, is pushed by regulatory drivers and pulled by a world of new and better ways to meet the needs of customers (consumers and businesses). The importance of regulatory drivers in fostering confidence in products and services underpinned by Open Finance was also an important area of focus and discussed in detail in fascinating panel discussions looking at Regulation & Trust and Avoiding Trust Tensions in FinTech.

The potential of Open Finance relies on access to the data that consumers and businesses generate as they carry out a myriad of day-to-day activities – whether in person or remotely. Data and how to make it accessible in a secure, fair and permissioned manner whilst generating insight and action figured prominently in all of the sessions during FTT Open Finance but, in particular, for the Guardians of the Data Galaxy panel. Unlocking the power of data through more open access relies on the concurrent need to secure and protect that data.

Drilling down into some concrete examples of how open finance is being used and will expand in future, we had some fantastic interactive conversations with Yapily, Marqeta, Star, Shearman & Sterling and Boss Insights about current use cases and what they are seeing coming down the pipe. From finance to the trusted building blocks of the future, there is a lot of insight to be gained from all of the content which is now available on demand.

Reasons to be cheerful #1 for 2021 – tune in now.