Open Banking Provider Evaluation Guide: What UK Firms Need to Know in 2025

Open Banking providers in the UK offer more than just APIs, they shape how your product handles payments, access to financial data, and ongoing compliance. In 2025, the open banking provider evaluation process isn’t just about feature comparison; it’s about finding a long-term fit for your business model.

If you’re wondering how to choose an open banking provider, the answer lies in understanding the key differences across licensing models, data coverage, support levels, and integration pathways.

Before you compare open banking providers, you’ll need to evaluate:

• Which banks and account types are supported
• How licensing is handled (AISP, PISP, or both)
• The time and complexity of integration
• Data quality, payment setup, and post-launch support

This guide breaks down each factor UK businesses must consider when planning an open banking integration. Whether you’re evaluating your first provider or switching to a more robust platform, this 2025 buyer’s guide will help you make a confident, future-ready decision.

1. What Does an Open Banking Provider Actually Do in 2025?

An Open Banking provider gives your business regulated access to customer bank data and payment initiation tools. In the UK, most providers are licensed as AISPs, PISPs, or both.

When going through your open banking provider evaluation, you’re not just comparing APIs, you’re deciding how your product will connect to banks, handle data, and meet compliance.

What You’re Actually Getting:

• Bank Access – APIs to retrieve account data or initiate payments
• Licensing Model – Use their AISP/PISP licence or bring your own
• Integration Setup – Docs, SDKs, and tools to get live
• Data Handling – Cleaned and categorised data, sometimes enriched
• Support – Help during setup and post-launch SLAs

Not all providers offer the same coverage, control, or clarity. Some limit on which banks or account types you can access. Others may slow down your integration or charge extra for features like enriched data.

Before comparing platforms, make sure you know what your product actually needs and how each provider delivers it.

Key Questions to Ask

Evaluation Question	Business Impact	What a Strong Provider Offers
How many UK banks do you connect with directly?	Wider reach ensures more customers can connect accounts without friction.	95%+ of UK banks, including high-street and digital-only banks.
Do you support both consumer and business accounts?	Vital for platforms serving SMEs, freelancers, or corporate clients.	Full support across personal and business banking.
Are all connections regulated APIs or do you use screen scraping?	Impacts trust, security, and long-term compliance viability.	Fully regulated, PSD2-compliant API-only connections.
Are integrations built in-house or via third-party aggregators?	Affects stability, troubleshooting speed, and SLA control.	Entirely in-house managed connections with direct bank relationships.
What is your average connection success rate by institution?	High conversion rates reduce drop-offs and failed sessions.	>85% across Tier 1 and Tier 2 banks.
How frequently do you test real bank connections?	Regular testing minimises outages and ensures live accuracy.	Daily or weekly live testing across account types.
Which regions or banks are you planning to add next?	Helps align your provider with your product’s future market strategy.	Transparent, customer-driven roadmap across regulated EU markets.

2. Licensing & Compliance: What Access Do You Actually Get?

Understanding how licensing works is a core part of any open banking provider evaluation. In the UK, providers typically hold FCA permissions as:

• AISP (Account Information Service Provider) – lets you access customer bank data
• PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider) – lets you initiate payments from customer accounts

Some platforms cover both. Others may only support one, or require you to bring your own licence.

📚 Guide to Open Banking AISP vs PISP

Key Questions to Ask

Evaluation Question	Business Impact	What a Strong Provider Offers
Are you fully regulated under FCA as an AISP, PISP, or both?	Determines your legal basis for accessing account data and initiating payments.	Dual AISP & PISP authorisation under FCA, listed in the public register.
Can we operate under your licence or do we need our own?	Impacts go-live timeline, legal responsibility, and compliance cost.	Option to operate under their licence (agent model) or bring your own.
Do you support agent registration under your entity?	Enables faster launch without navigating full FCA authorisation.	Yes, with onboarding support and reporting tools.
How do you manage ongoing compliance and reporting?	Affects your workload and audit readiness post-launch.	Provider handles key regulatory reporting, with data access for review.
What safeguards are in place for customer consent and data privacy?	Ensures you remain compliant with GDPR and PSD2 obligations.	Built-in consent flows, audit trails, and consent expiry monitoring.
Are there additional costs or requirements tied to licensing support?	Helps you avoid hidden charges or legal surprises.	Transparent pricing with licensing support included in standard plans.

3. Integration & Developer Support

A well-documented API is only part of the equation. The real difference shows up in how quickly your team can go from sandbox to production and how much help you get when things go wrong.

When running an open banking provider evaluation in 2025, look beyond technical specs. Ask what developer tools are available, how integration timelines compare, and how responsive the provider’s support team is.

Some vendors provide code libraries, prebuilt SDKs, and test environments that significantly cut down development time. Others offer little more than raw APIs and expect your team to build everything from scratch.

Before you commit, ensure the provider aligns with your product’s release schedule, technical stack, and developer capacity.

Key Questions to Ask

Evaluation Question	Business Impact	What a Strong Provider Offers
Are you fully regulated under FCA as an AISP, PISP, or both?	Determines your legal basis for accessing account data and initiating payments.	Dual AISP & PISP authorisation under FCA, listed in the public register.
Can we operate under your licence or do we need our own?	Impacts go-live timeline, legal responsibility, and compliance cost.	Option to operate under their licence (agent model) or bring your own.
Do you support agent registration under your entity?	Enables faster launch without navigating full FCA authorisation.	Yes, with onboarding support and reporting tools.
How do you manage ongoing compliance and reporting?	Affects your workload and audit readiness post-launch.	Provider handles key regulatory reporting, with data access for review.
What safeguards are in place for customer consent and data privacy?	Ensures you remain compliant with GDPR and PSD2 obligations.	Built-in consent flows, audit trails, and consent expiry monitoring.
Are there additional costs or requirements tied to licensing support?	Helps you avoid hidden charges or legal surprises.	Transparent pricing with licensing support included in standard plans.

4. Evaluating Security, Compliance & Licensing

When assessing an Open Banking provider, it’s not enough to confirm they’re “regulated.” You’ll need to dig deeper into how they handle sensitive financial data, whether they offer licensing coverage (like AISP or PISP), and how their infrastructure supports your own compliance posture, especially if you’re operating in a regulated sector like lending, accounting, or insurance.

A good provider should help you meet your security obligations without adding unnecessary friction for end users. They should also be transparent about audit practices, encryption standards, and data hosting policies.

Key Questions on Security & Compliance

Evaluation Question	Business Impact	What a Strong Provider Offers
Are you registered with the FCA (or another UK regulator)?	Essential for compliance — using an unregistered provider could expose you to legal risks.	Fully registered as AISP, PISP, or both, with public record and oversight.
Do you offer licence coverage for clients?	Determines if your business needs its own authorisation.	Yes, some providers offer “regulated-as-a-service” onboarding.
What encryption standards do you follow?	Impacts data safety and trust with your users.	End-to-end encryption (AES-256, TLS 1.2+) for both data in transit and at rest.
Where is customer data stored?	Storage location affects GDPR compliance and risk management.	UK or EEA-based hosting with clear subprocessor disclosures.
How is customer consent managed and recorded?	Consent mismanagement can lead to fines or data misuse.	Transparent flows with revocable consent and audit logs.
Do you support Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)?	Required under PSD2 — without it, payments may be rejected.	Yes, built into the user journey for all applicable use cases.
What’s your incident response and breach reporting policy?	Speaks to how issues will be handled if something goes wrong.	SLA-driven, with defined timelines and notifications.

5. Pricing & Commercial Terms

Open Banking costs can vary widely, and not just in headline API fees. Some providers price based on usage (per API call or per connection), while others bundle services or require minimum monthly commitments. Understanding the true cost of ownership means asking about more than just the base rate.

You should also explore hidden or indirect costs: enriched data, white-labelling, onboarding support, or additional dashboards often come at a premium. The right pricing model will depend on your business volume, growth plans, and integration requirements.

Key Questions on Pricing & Commercial Terms

Evaluation Question	Business Impact	What a Strong Provider Offers
What is your core pricing model (pay-as-you-go, volume-tiered, fixed)?	Affects predictability and scalability of costs.	Transparent breakdown based on usage or monthly commitment.
Are there any onboarding or setup fees?	Can inflate your initial investment beyond expected.	Often waived or disclosed clearly upfront.
Is enriched data or categorisation included in the price?	Impacts product features like transaction filtering or income analysis.	Included in base cost or offered with clear add-on pricing.
Are payment initiation and account information billed separately?	Determines cost structure if using both services.	Flexible bundling or modular pricing depending on use case.
Do you charge for failed or incomplete API calls?	Important for high-volume integrations where retries may occur.	Fair retry policies with no penalties for failed calls.
Can I trial the service before committing?	Reduces buyer risk and helps validate fit.	Free test environment or limited-scope pilot available.
Are there additional fees for support, customisation, or SLAs?	Ongoing cost transparency is crucial for planning.	Support included or tiered clearly with optional upgrades.

6. Technical Integration & Support

The speed and reliability of integration can make or break your Open Banking project timeline. A good provider should offer more than just an API, think SDKs, developer docs, webhooks, and support during implementation. Some even offer white-label components or embeddable UI kits to simplify frontend work.

For ongoing success, evaluate how the provider handles uptime, error logging, webhook stability, and incident response. The best technical partners act like an extension of your team.

Key Questions on Technical Integration & Support

Evaluation Question	Business Impact	What a Strong Provider Offers
Do you provide a full developer portal with documentation, sandbox, and SDKs?	Determines how quickly your dev team can go live.	Well-documented APIs, test environment, code samples in major languages.
How long does it typically take to go live?	Affects launch timeline and internal planning.	1–4 weeks with support, depending on complexity.
Do you offer webhook support and real-time status updates?	Essential for time-sensitive data syncing and payment tracking.	Reliable webhooks with clear retry logic and monitoring tools.
How is developer support provided (email, Slack, ticketing)?	Influences issue resolution speed during integration.	Dedicated technical support via Slack or priority ticket queues.
Do you offer white-label or prebuilt UI components?	Reduces frontend development and improves UX consistency.	Optional widgets or embeddable flows for AIS/PIS journeys.
What uptime and incident SLAs do you provide?	Critical for applications where service interruptions can cause business impact.	Uptime guarantees >99.9% with incident dashboards and comms.
Can we customise data mapping or webhook payloads?	Determines flexibility in fitting provider into your stack.	Some allow full customisation or provide pre-mapped output formats.

7. Company Stability & Product Roadmap

Choosing an Open Banking provider is not just a technical decision, it’s a long-term partnership. A provider with financial backing, proven clients, and a clear product roadmap gives your team confidence that the integration won’t become obsolete or unsupported in a year.

Look into company size, funding history, client case studies, and how frequently product updates are rolled out. A transparent roadmap also signals alignment with your future needs such as support for VRPs, variable payment flows, or new markets.

Key Questions on Company Stability & Roadmap

Evaluation Question	Business Impact	What a Strong Provider Offers
What is your current funding or revenue model?	Indicates long-term sustainability.	Transparent funding or recurring revenue from proven clients.
Who are your key clients or sectors served?	Reflects credibility and alignment with your use case.	Well-known names in your industry, or use cases similar to yours.
Do you have a public roadmap or changelog?	Shows transparency and future alignment.	Regularly updated roadmap or changelog showing upcoming features.
How often do you release updates or improvements?	Indicates product maturity and responsiveness.	Monthly or quarterly releases with changelog access.
What’s your team size and structure?	Helps assess capability to support growing demand.	Dedicated engineering, product, and support functions.
How do you handle product feedback or feature requests?	Shows whether your input will shape future direction.	Feedback portals or dedicated AMs to escalate feature needs.
What’s your stance on new regulatory changes (e.g., VRP)?	Determines readiness for market shifts.	Actively developing features aligned with regulatory evolution.

Why Businesses Choose Finexer for Open Banking in 2025

If you’re evaluating providers, you’ll need more than technical claims, you’ll want real-world clarity on how a provider supports your growth, speed to launch, compliance, and client experience. Here’s what Finexer brings to the table:

Key Question	Business Impact	Finexer’s Approach
What’s your pricing model?	Assesses long-term value without hidden costs.	Flexible, usage-based pricing with no upfront fees or volume lock-ins.
How fast can we go live?	Affects go-to-market speed and dev resourcing.	3x faster than the market average
What support do you offer during launch?	Reduces engineering burden and onboarding risk.	3–5 weeks of hands-on support with integration specialists and tailored guidance.
Can you support FCA compliance?	Crucial for regulated firms or firms without their own license.	Yes, operate under Finexer’s AISP/PISP licence
What data quality do you offer?	Impacts decisioning, KYC, lending, and reconciliation accuracy.	Categorised bank data with support for income checks, transaction tagging.
Do you offer white-label integration?	Important for platforms embedding Open Banking into client flows.	Yes — white-labelled bank flows and fully customisable API layers.
What industries do you serve?	Helps gauge fit for specific verticals.	Accounting, lending, law firms, payroll, insurance, utilities, and more.

What Makes Finexer Different?

Finexer is built for UK businesses that need dependable Open Banking infrastructure without drawn-out contracts, vague SLAs, or third-party dependencies.

Whether you’re a compliance-heavy firm or a product-led platform, Finexer gives you:

• Real-time access to regulated bank data and payments
• Transparent pricing with usage-based billing
• White-labelled experiences your users won’t question
• Dedicated launch support so your devs aren’t left guessing

From the first call to production launch, you’ll be working with a provider that prioritises speed, clarity, and control, not overhead and complexity.

What Customers Say

Legaltech provider VirtualSignature-ID needed more than an Open Banking API; they needed a partner that could integrate fast, meet compliance requirements, and support complex workflows across legal and accountancy clients.

“Finexer is easy to work with and flexible in their approach, providing the bespoke services we required alongside a viable commercial package. They’ve proven to be more than a provider — they’re a trusted partner who understands our vision and helps us achieve it.”
— David Kern, CEO, VirtualSignature-ID

From faster onboarding to regulatory confidence, the partnership continues to unlock time savings and operational clarity across client identity checks, source of funds, and secure document workflows.