First open banking credit card set to launch

The first open banking-powered credit card is set to be launched by Keebo, which aims to offer credit to those who would traditionally be rejected for a credit card.

The fintech company, Keebo, is using open banking to check the credit worthiness of those who may not have been able to build up a credit score, such as young people and expats, and who would often be rejected by credit card lenders as a result.

Keebo’s credit card will be the first in the UK to offer an open banking-powered credit card. The company has stated that it plans to use the information gathered through open banking to lend to those who are creditworthy by looking at their finances overall, including maintaining direct debits and savings, and not just their credit history.

Along with using open banking to check the creditworthiness of borrowers, Keebo is also aiming to use the service to warn consumers if they are about to financially overextend themselves.

No information about when the card will be launched, what APR will be charged and what level of credit limit will be offered has been revealed yet. Interested consumers can, however, sign up to the waitlist to get easy access

Open banking gives third-party financial service providers open access to a consumer’s banking, transaction and other financial data from banks and financial institutions using application programming interfaces. Consumers have to give permission to the third-party financial service allowing them access to financial data through open banking.

Financial service providers cannot access a consumer’s information through open banking without their consent, so consumers should be careful that they only grant permission to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulated providers. Regulated providers will only be able to access information needed for the service the consumer has signed up to and agreed they can access. In addition to this, providers must comply with data protection rules, which means the provider should tell consumers which data it will use, how long for and what it will do with the information before the consumer agrees to them accessing their data.