Open Banking and Software

If you use accounting software which has a”bank feed” to connect to your bank account and download transactions, you may have heard of open banking.

This new EU directive which will allow a customer to grant authority to a third party to access their data, came into force on 14^th September 2019. The third party must be an Account Information Service Provider, registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. The third party access is read only, and providers must adhere to strict security regulations.

Prior to open banking, software bank feeds, could either be direct with your bank or through a third party company. Open banking will mean all bank feeds will become direct.
At present software companies are staggering the release of direct bank feeds, and many banks are now available. If you need to update your bank feed, you will be prompted when you log into your software to update the feed details. Providing your software company has a direct feed available there should be no break in service.

However, some banks and software companies may not be completely ready for open banking. If this is the case, you should be able to log into your internet banking and download a statement in CSV file format. This can then be uploaded to your software as a manual feed, until your direct feed becomes available.

Gail Kristiansen is a Bookkeeping Manager at Rennie Welch and may be contacted at our Kelso office on 01573 224391 or gail.kristiansen@renniewelch.co.uk