UK’s Data Bill is back on the table

Chris Michael, CEO and Co-founder, Ozone API 

As the UK sees in a new Government, the UK’s open banking and smart data initiatives are at an important inflection point. Recently, the then Conservative Government launched policies including a Smart Data Roadmap and a new open finance taskforce, under the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (DPDI).  

These were certainly signals that policymakers have heard industry calls for better frameworks to be put in place around open banking and finance specifically. But there’s a long way to go for the open data economy to be realised and the new government must keep up this momentum to avoid losing progress.   

Ultimately, what we should be working towards is a single global framework for open data. That’s a gargantuan task but its impact would be huge. The Open Wallet Foundation, the Open Data Institute and the OpenID Foundation are all doing some great work in this space, but the challenge remains that ‘open’ is not the best term to use with consumers, as it incorrectly implies a lack of data privacy and governance. 

As we extend open banking into open finance and ultimately the open data economy, one of the big challenges is that more and more regulators must be involved. It’s great that we’re seeing more support across government, but policy gridlock has so far held it back. We need one body to take responsibility for moving this forward – and the new government has a unique opportunity to do so now, helping the UK take the next step on this journey.