Fintech and payments · Market read

UK open banking runs on 70 data calls for every payment

In the US, the fight over who pays for those calls is stuck in a court order.

vizmaya desk · 31 October 2026

First, the idea

Open banking is a bank answering a question you approved

Your bank holds your account records. Open banking lets you say yes to an app you pick, so the bank shares them with it.

The app asks. The bank answers. One question and one answer is one API call.

Your bank holds the data The app you chose question answer OK you approve

What changed lately

Three things happened in the last three months

  • Late Sep 2026UK: the open banking body reported July's record of 2.94 billion calls. Payments grew 45% over the year.
  • 2 Sep 2026India: the Account Aggregator system said it passed 500 million fulfilled consents.
  • Early Aug 2026US: the consumer finance regulator sent a rewrite of its data rule to White House review.

Sources: Open Banking Limited, Sahamati, reporting on the CFPB filing. Sources differ on the US date (4 or 6 August).

The scale

Four numbers say how big this has got

2.81bn
API calls in June 2026
Open Banking Limited, 28 Jul 2026
40.16m
payments in June 2026
Open Banking Limited, 28 Jul 2026
18.81m
user connections, June 2026
Counted per bank brand, not per person. OBL.
500M
consents fulfilled, all time
Sahamati, announced 2 Sep 2026

Chart 1 · The shape

The average month now carries almost twice the calls of 2024

In July 2026 UK banks answered 2.94 billion calls, a record. The average month in 2024 was about 1.6 billion.

2024 and 2025 are monthly averages worked out from OBL's yearly totals (24.0 billion in 2025, up 27%). Source: OBL 2025 review, OBL, Sep 2026.

The reveal

70calls per payment

June 2026: 2.81 billion calls and 40.16 million payments. Divide one by the other and you get about 70.

A ratio of two different counts. Calls include data requests, so this is not a cost per payment. Source: OBL, worked out by the desk.

1 payment

Each dot is one call. About 70 calls sit beside every payment.

Chart 2 · The split

Recurring payments grew while one-off payments slipped

In June, sweeping recurring payments rose 6.7% to 7.73 million. One-off payments fell 1.2% to 32.43 million.

Recurring is now about 19% of all payments. One month is not a trend.

Share worked out by the desk. Source: OBL, June 2026 data.

Chart 3 · The stress point

Calls hit a record, but connections fell 4.2% in June

A connection is one customer linked to one app. It is counted per bank brand, so it is not a head count.

The Fintech Times reported that OBL did not comment on the fall. Nobody has said why.

May 2026 (hollow dot) is worked out from the 4.2% fall. Source: OBL, The Fintech Times.

India · Account Aggregator

India's version passed 500 million consents

In India you approve each data share in an app, and a licensed middleman passes it on. Sahamati, the industry body, announced the 500 million milestone on 2 September 2026.

Monthly volume was 20 million-plus in December 2025 and 19 million-plus in June 2026. Two readings are not a trend.

Industry-body figures; no RBI series found. Source: Sahamati newsletter, press release.

United States · Section 1033

In the US the rule exists, but nobody has to follow it yet

The 2024 rule gives people the right to share bank data, and bans fees for it. A court has stayed its deadlines.

Source: CFPB, Federal Register. Some outlets call the court order an injunction.

  • 22 Oct 2024The CFPB issues the final rule. Bank groups sue the same day.
  • 21 Aug 2025The CFPB reopens the rule and asks if fees should be allowed.
  • 29 Oct 2025A court in Kentucky stays the compliance dates.
  • 1 Apr 2026The first deadline for the biggest banks passes.
  • Early Aug 2026The rewrite goes to White House review.

The real fight

Who pays for the calls?

The 2024 US rule bans fees. The rewrite is reported to let banks charge after a set number of free requests. The text is not public, so this is reported, not confirmed.

Thought experiment Say a call cost 0.1 pence. The fee is made up. On June's UK volume it would add up to:

£2.81m

Illustration only, not a forecast. 2.81 billion calls times £0.001. Sources: Consumer Finance Monitor, PYMNTS.

Lens read · Market

Payments are winning. The price of data is the open question.

Winning

Payments grew 45% in the year to July 2026, ahead of calls (30%) and connections (26%). Fact

Losing

One-off payments (down 1.2% in June) and the user count (down 4.2%). One month each. Fact

Pricing in

A paid future: a UK recurring-payments rulebook from 2 June 2026, and a US fee rewrite. I found no published price per call. Interpretation

Sources: OBL, UK Payments Initiative launch.

Risks and the counter-case

Why the 70 may mislead

  • Calls include data requests and status checks. The ratio is not a cost per payment.
  • Connections are counted per bank brand. The June fall may be a counting effect.
  • The US rewrite is not published. The fee story is reported, not confirmed.
  • The other view: payments grew 45%, so open banking is becoming a payments product, not just a data pipe.

What to watch next

Four markers to check

  • Next OBL monthly dataDoes UK traffic pass 3 billion calls a month? July was 2.94 billion.
  • Around early Nov 2026The 90-day mark of White House review, which usually runs up to 90 days (a forecast, not a deadline).
  • End of 2026The UK regulator plans to assess recurring-payment growth, then a policy statement is planned for Q1 2027.
  • Sahamati's next goalOne billion consents. It was 500 million on 2 Sep 2026.

Sources and claims log

27 claims checked: 18 verified, 4 contested, 5 left off

18 verified4 contested5 unverified, kept off

Contested: the court order label, the exact US filing date, the reported fee rewrite, and India's lending claim (not used). Not found: photos (image sites were blocked), eight-plus monthly points per series, RBI's own consent data.

vizmaya desk · 31 October 2026 · More Vizmaya stories