"Our Open Banking team has been hard at work to add Barclays and HSBC to our first connection with Lloyds"
The announcement follows a previous partnership with Lloyds Bank and will enable more than 60% of the lender’s customers to take advantage of the Open Banking service.
Open Banking allows customers to give verified third-parties access to their bank data via a secure application programming interface. Business owners who bank with either Barclays, HSBC or Lloyds can now provide up to five years of transaction history in seconds when applying for a revolving credit facility or long-term loan from iwoca.
According to the CMA, these three banks combined accounted for between 50 and 80% of the market share of UK business current accounts in 2015, the last year for which figures are available.
iwoca says it will continue to work on finalising connections with the remaining six high street banks, revealing that Santander and NatWest deals are close to being completed.
Mark Chidley, independent SME representative to the Open Banking Implementation Entity, said: “iwoca’s announcement today demonstrates that the potential of Open Banking to transform how small businesses manage their finances is being realised. This is very good news for the UK’s small businesses who, according to recent Government figures, employ over 16 million people and have a combined turnover of over £2 trillion.
“Open Banking has a powerful role to play in bringing together members of its ecosystem to provide small businesses with the ability to manage their businesses in a more productive, efficient and profitable way – helping to mitigate persistent challenges such as late payments, low productivity and inefficient access to credit. The OBIE looks forward to continuing to bring the many actors in the ecosystem together in order to fully explore and realise the benefits that open banking can bring to small business owners and UK plc.”
Christoph Rieche, CEO and co-founder of iwoca, commented: “Our Open Banking team has been hard at work to add Barclays and HSBC to our first connection with Lloyds and I’m delighted that we can now offer almost two-thirds of our customers an easier way to get approved with us. Clearly there’s a need to raise awareness of Open Banking and help small business owners benefit from it, and we’d love to work with the banks and the Open Banking body to achieve that.
“We believe that what we do at iwoca is helping a vital sector of the country thrive. Business owners want to get on and do what they do best – running their own business. That’s why we want to make getting a small business loan from iwoca as simple as booking a plane ticket online. Open Banking is helping us to achieve that.”
