Colombia reportedly takes voluntary approach to Open Banking

Open Banking, which aims to increase competition and innovation in financial services, involves the use of open application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable third-party developers – fintech companies – to build applications and services. Countries worldwide are taking different approaches and speeds on its implementation. In Colombia, the government’s unit for regulatory projection and financial regulation studies (Unidad de Proyección Normativa y Estudios de Regulación Financiera – URF), which is part of the finance ministry (Ministerio de Hacienda y Crédito Público), is running a series of public-private sector events to help define and refine its planned approach.

The URF will then move forward on implementing the regulatory framework necessary for the implementation of the chosen model. It expects to have this regulation in place by the end of this year or the beginning of 2022. The Open Banking initiative complements other URF initiatives, such as broader modernisation of the country’s payment system. The overall aim is to create a regulatory framework that encourages digitalisation and innovation across financial services.