Ghana releases draft open banking directive

The Bank of Ghana has released a draft open banking directive for its regulated financial institutions.

Open banking allows banks and consumers to share financial data with third-party financial service providers. Its proponents argue that sharing data securely increases transparency, competition and efficiency, and encourages the development of new services.

The central bank said open banking was “a transformative development” in global financial services. It added that it intended to encourage only secure sharing of data that consumers had agreed could be shared.

The directive says open banking will involve the use of customers’ personal, financial and generic services data. Consumers will need to give their consent before any financial institution can collect their data.

In a statement, the central bank said the public would also be able to verify the extent to which their data was being collected and exchanged between different institutions. It added that consent for this collection and exchange could be revoked at any time.

The central bank said it would establish the Open Data Exchange, or OpenDX, to facilitate the exchange of data with customers’ consent. The platform would be governed by a board of directors which, in turn, would be overseen by the central bank.

The Bank of Ghana said it hoped the directive would “accelerate the adoption of digital financial services” and make overall improvements to the payments ecosystem.

According to the directive, registered financial institutions would be the first point of call for resolving consumers’ complaints. The central bank would be a second point of call.

Stakeholders have 30 days from the publication of the directive, on December 20, to provide comments.