Open banking-enabled products are being used by over seven million consumers and small businesses in the UK. SMEs account for about 750,000 of this, meaning that open banking has a 16% penetration rate for firms, versus an 11% rate for consumers.

The latest data shows the gap between the two is widening and is largely down to more small businesses using cloud accounting software that uses open banking to import transaction data.

Small business use is dominated by data-driven account information services which allow firms to see multiple accounts in one place, providing real-time insights for cash flow and forecasting. This accounts for 79% of business use.

In contrast, consumers are using more payment initiation services, which allow them to move money, for example, to top up wallets, or to pay tax or credit card bills.

The OBL estimates that 10-11% of digitally-enabled consumers and small businesses used open banking during March 2022, a slight increase from a year earlier. Payments saw a more substantial rise: in 2022 there were 68.2 million open banking payments, up from 25.2 million in 2021. Month-on-month growth is running at around 10%.

Meanwhile, there are 159 fully regulated firms with live open banking-enabled products available to consumers and businesses. The market remains dominated by propositions addressing improved financial decision-making (49), expanded payments choice (45) and better borrowing (27).

Marion King, chair and trustee, OBL, says: “It is encouraging to see a continued and steady increase in the adoption of open banking products and services, particularly by the UK’s small firms which are seeing tangible benefits from real-time business insights offered by open banking data."