Open Banking Exchange (OBE), the non-profit global movement for industry stakeholders which has enjoyed tremendous success in Europe and the United Kingdom, launches its Asian arm to increase financial inclusion in the region through Open Finance and Open Banking.
OBE’s strategy of linking member companies with financial institutions as well as providing tools, platforms, and guidance that help form responses to industry challenges will enable thousands of Asian MSMEs and startups to scale and expand their markets.
OBE’s partner in Asia, Brankas, Southeast Asia’s leading Open Finance technology company will help promote and advance financial accessibility and services across these markets.
OBE Asia Director and Brankas CEO Todd Schweitzer said that OBE’s establishment in Asia will bring an easier and yet more comprehensive understanding of what enables the more sustainable kind of Open Banking across nations.
“This is the first time that the OBE has brought together use cases, terminology, taxonomy, technical standards, lessons learned – good and bad – and put them in a single place,” Schweitzer said.
Stakeholders such as governments, financial institutions, MSMEs, and other organizations are enabled by OBE’s efforts across Asia. As examples, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the Bank of Thailand (BOT), or the Thai Bankers Association can readily assess “the balance of policies and frameworks that they can actually learn from a single repository”.
Schweitzer also singled out the Philippines as an example of a country setting up guidelines that encourage innovation in governance and the framework rollout of Open Finance regulations.
He also acknowledged the leadership of the Open Finance Oversight Committee (OFOC), which was established by the BSP, and the National Privacy Commission in the upcoming development of regulatory sandboxes for new technologies and solutions.
OBE has been facilitating collaboration, discussion, and learning, specifically about Open Banking and Open Finance, with its members in various continents such as Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. Meanwhile, OBE Managing Director John Broxis emphasized that the continuing development of technology can open this same opportunity to many MSMEs in Asia. He also explained what institutions in the region need to do to move forward, as many of them still have significant differences in their respective definitions — and by implication, practices — of Open Banking.
