Open banking has transitioned from a regulatory mandate to a commercial differentiator. In 2026, the maturity of APIs varies wildly across regions, but the B2B use cases—particularly instant account-to-account (A2A) payments and real-time credit decisioning—are now mainstream.
API reliability and data latency
While European banks have met their PSD2 requirements, the performance of free regulatory APIs remains a bottleneck. Third-party providers (TPPs) increasingly rely on premium, paid APIs offered by banks that guarantee uptime and provide richer data fields, such as real-time pending transactions and investment account balances.
The rise of account-to-account payments
A2A payments are challenging traditional card networks for e-commerce and B2B transactions. By leveraging instant payment rails (like SEPA Instant or FedNow), open banking enables merchants to receive funds immediately at a fraction of the cost of credit card interchange fees.
- Zero interchange fees
- Instant settlement to merchant account
- Elimination of chargeback fraud
- Streamlined mobile checkout flows
“Instant account-to-account payments are no longer a niche alternative; they are becoming the preferred rail for high-value B2B transactions.”
Challenges in consent management
The primary friction point remains consent renewal. Having users re-authenticate their bank connections every 90 or 180 days leads to churn. Improving the user experience around consent renewal is the next major hurdle for open banking platforms.
