Over the past two years, Celent has observed accelerating growth in the “open ecosystem” in banking. While the roots of open banking, embedded finance, and banking as a service can be traced back nearly a decade, it is only recently that we have begun to see most financial institutions give serious attention to evaluating and seizing the growth opportunities each represents.
The key underpinning of this shift has been the realization by banks that, with the right approach, the opportunities are arguably greater for them than for fintechs and other entrants in the value chain. As a result, banks in all regions are actively developing and launching a wave of new strategic plays, new business and operating models, resulting in innovative product initiatives and partnerships.
Given the heightened energy around the open ecosystem, Celent included in the agenda of its Insights and Innovation event (March 16, 2022) an exclusive and invitation-only roundtable with senior innovation leaders and decision-makers from 10 leading financial institutions in North America and Europe. Each has direct involvement with the open ecosystem strategy and activities of their institution.
Our theme, Harnessing the Power of the Open Ecosystem, clearly resonated, as it led to a lively and hugely informative discussion. In this report we outline some of the themes discussed, along with the implications for the entire industry. We also weave in learnings and insights from our proprietary research on the topic over the past two years. Amongst our learnings are the following key success factors.
Figure: Key Success Factors in Harnessing the Power of the Open Ecosystem
