Zopa: 40pc of UK adults would use open banking to improve access to credit
Zopa has found that over 40 per cent of UK consumers would adopt open banking to secure a faster loan approval or a better interest rate.
The peer-to-peer lender and digital bank commissioned a survey of 2,000 UK adults to find out their views on the data-sharing initiative.
Nearly half (44 per cent) said they would use open banking to simplify and speed up their loan application, 43 per cent said they would use it to unlock better rates and 40 per cent said they would use it to improve their chances of getting an offer from a lender.
Despite these benefits of open banking, the research found that 80 per cent of consumers have never knowingly used the technology.
“We already use open banking verification to ease application journeys and to power tools like borrowing power which help our customers improve their financial health,” said Tim Waterman, chief commercial officer at Zopa.
“By using open banking to calculate credit eligibility for the first time, we are helping thousands more customers access our award-winning credit products in a way which they may not have been eligible to previously. We believe this further supports our vision to build the best place for money in the UK.”
Zopa’s research also revealed that adoption of the data-sharing initiative has mainly been driven by use of account aggregation services so far.
A third (34 per cent) of UK consumers use open banking to view all bank accounts in one place, 28 per cent use it to keep an eye on all savings and investments and 27 per cent use the data-sharing initiative to move money between bank accounts and savings.
Four million consumers currently use open banking and Zopa has estimated that this could rise to 40 million people by 2025.
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In May, Zopa announced that it had partnered with credit score provider and marketplace ClearScore to utilise open banking capabilities for its customers.
It said that this partnership has resulted in a 37 per cent increase in the number of users eligible to apply for a Zopa credit card, improving financial inclusion for thousands of new customers who may have previously been declined due to thin files.
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