Open Banking APIs in the UK

The most widely used open banking APIs in the UK are: TrueLayer (UK & Europe specialist; strongest for pay-by-bank and Variable Recurring Payments), Yapily (infrastructure-only API with no consumer-facing UI; popular with platforms that want to white-label), Tink (Visa-owned, broad UK and European coverage for AIS and PIS), Plaid (UK + global, strong for account data, identity, and income verification), GoCardless (UK and EU bank payments, including the Nordigen-powered Bank Account Data API and Instant Bank Pay), Moneyhub (UK-focused enterprise AIS with strong personal-finance and pensions tooling), and Salt Edge (global coverage including the UK, often chosen by teams that need many regions through one integration). There is no single 'best' API — choice depends on your use case. For pay-by-bank checkout and VRP, shortlist TrueLayer, Yapily, GoCardless, and Tink. For account data, statements, and lending decisions, look at Plaid, TrueLayer, Tink, and Moneyhub. Other criteria: coverage of the CMA9 plus smaller building societies and neobanks; whether you can rely on the aggregator's TPP licence (so you do not need your own FCA AISP/PISP authorisation); pricing model (per-call, per-user, or flat); and developer experience (sandbox quality, SDKs, docs, and support). The Open Banking Tracker has a dedicated UK view of its API aggregators directory at /api-aggregators?country=GB, plus the Open Banking Providers guide and a Pay by Bank APIs comparison for payment-initiation use cases. Each provider profile lists UK bank coverage, AIS/PIS support, sandbox availability, and a link to the developer portal so you can shortlist quickly.

Read the full answer →

For account information (AIS), GoCardless Bank Account Data — the API formerly known as Nordigen — has the most generous free tier in the UK and EEA: free for low volumes of connected end users, with paid plans only when you scale. TrueLayer and Yapily both offer free sandboxes and pay-as-you-go pricing that suits early-stage teams. Plaid has a developer free tier for testing. Tink, Moneyhub, and Salt Edge typically require a sales conversation for pricing. For pay-by-bank (PIS) and Variable Recurring Payments, expect per-transaction pricing rather than a free tier. UK pay-by-bank typically costs 0.1–0.5% of the transaction or a flat fee of around 5–30p — much cheaper than card schemes (1.5–3.5%). TrueLayer, Yapily, and GoCardless are competitive here. Watch for hidden costs: minimum monthly commits, refresh-frequency tiers (real-time vs cached), identity or income add-ons, and support SLAs. The Open Banking Tracker API aggregators directory lets you filter by sandbox availability and country, and each profile links to the provider's pricing page where it is public. See best-open-banking-apis-uk for a fuller comparison and which-open-banking-providers-offer-sandbox for free testing options.

Read the full answer →

Choose by use case first. Account information (AIS) for aggregation, lending, or affordability decisions is a different shortlist from payment initiation (PIS) or Variable Recurring Payments (VRP). Once the use case is set, check coverage of the banks you actually need — the CMA9 are universal across major UK aggregators, but smaller building societies and neobanks vary. Then compare on pricing, sandbox quality, AISP/PISP licence reliance, and developer experience (SDKs, docs, support, and time-to-first-call). Common UK shortlists: pay-by-bank checkout — TrueLayer, Yapily, GoCardless, Tink. Account aggregation and lending decisions — Plaid, Tink, TrueLayer, Moneyhub. Variable Recurring Payments — TrueLayer, Yapily, GoCardless. Multi-region (UK plus EU plus US) from one integration — Tink, Plaid, Salt Edge. Enterprise PFM and pensions data — Moneyhub. White-label infrastructure (no consumer UI) — Yapily. A practical workflow: (1) write down your use case and the must-have banks; (2) shortlist 2–3 providers; (3) sign up to their sandboxes and run real flows; (4) get pricing for your projected volume in 12 months, not just today; (5) confirm their FCA AISP/PISP licence covers your model so you do not need your own. The Open Banking Tracker provider directory plus the best-open-banking-apis-uk and do-i-need-license-to-use-open-banking-apis answers cover the steps in detail.

Read the full answer →

PSD2 (Revised Payment Services Directive) is the EU-wide regulation that mandates open banking access across the EEA but does not specify a single technical standard. Each country implements PSD2 differently: Berlin Group is the most common technical standard in Germany and Austria; STET is used in France; and other markets have their own implementations. The UK Open Banking Standard, by contrast, is a single, prescriptive technical specification developed by the OBIE that all CMA9 banks plus many smaller UK banks and building societies implement consistently. For developers, this difference matters. UK Open Banking APIs are typically more uniform, better documented, and easier to integrate than PSD2 APIs across multiple EU countries. The UK standard also tends to expose richer data and a more consistent consent UX. After Brexit the UK retained equivalent rules, so an FCA-issued AISP/PISP licence does not passport into the EU, and EU-issued licences do not passport into the UK — most teams either get separate licences in each region or rely on an aggregator that holds both. Most UK and European aggregators (TrueLayer, Tink, Yapily, Plaid, Salt Edge) abstract this difference for developers — one API surface, multiple regulatory regimes underneath. See best-open-banking-apis-uk for UK-specific picks, which-api-aggregators-support-european-psd2 for EU coverage, and what-is-uk-open-banking-standard for the standard's full scope.

Read the full answer →

For UK startups the lowest-friction options are GoCardless Bank Account Data — formerly Nordigen — which has a free tier for account information; TrueLayer, which offers a free sandbox, pay-as-you-go pricing, and strong pay-by-bank and VRP for checkout flows; and Yapily, which is infrastructure-only (no consumer UI), so a startup keeps full control over the user experience. Plaid is also a fit for teams that need US plus UK coverage from one integration on day one. Things UK startups should weigh: (1) free tier or pay-as-you-go pricing — avoid annual commits before product-market fit; (2) AISP/PISP licence dependency — most UK aggregators let you launch under their FCA licence as an agent or technical service provider, so you can ship before you have your own authorisation; (3) developer experience — fast sandbox, clean docs, and a friendly support channel matter more than enterprise features; (4) ability to scale — confirm pricing for 10x your current volume so you do not hit a cost cliff six months in. The Open Banking Tracker API aggregators directory is filterable by sandbox availability, country, and AIS or PIS support. Combine that view with best-open-banking-apis-uk for shortlist criteria, cheapest-open-banking-api-uk for cost-focused comparison, and do-i-need-license-to-use-open-banking-apis for licence guidance.

Read the full answer →

In the UK, the nine banks and building societies covered by the CMA order (e.g. Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander UK, and others) are required to offer open banking APIs. Many additional UK banks and building societies have joined voluntarily, so a large share of UK current accounts are accessible via the UK Open Banking Standard. Access is typically through the standardised APIs defined by the Open Banking Implementation Entity. Third parties connect either directly to each bank’s API or via an API aggregator (e.g. TrueLayer, Yapily, Tink) that connects to many UK banks through one integration. The Open Banking Tracker provider directory lists UK banks and their API and aggregator coverage. Use the Open Banking Tracker to browse providers by country (United Kingdom) and see which banks support open banking, which aggregators connect to them, and links to developer portals where available.

Read the full answer →