UK open banking payments pass one billion milestone

UK open banking payments have passed one billion since the regime began more than eight years ago, while API calls across the CMA9 banks have exceeded 100 billion, Open Banking Limited said. The figures mark a further expansion of account-to-account payments and data-enabled financial services in the UK banking system.

Open Banking Limited said the milestones show that open banking has become part of the country’s financial infrastructure, supporting services used by consumers and businesses to access financial products, initiate account-to-account payments and manage money. The CMA9 refers to the nine largest UK banks and building societies by personal and business current-account volumes.

June 2026 performance data pointed to continued growth in usage. Open Banking Limited reported 2.81 billion API calls during the month, up 4.4% from the previous month and the highest monthly total recorded to date.

What is UK open banking payments growth showing?

The latest figures show increased use of open banking interfaces and stable payment volumes, according to Open Banking Limited. API calls are requests made through standardised interfaces that allow authorised providers to connect with bank systems, while open banking payments allow money to move directly from one account to another without relying on card rails.

Total open banking payments reached 40.16 million in June. Within that figure, Single Domestic Payments fell 1.2% month on month to 32.43 million, while Sweeping Variable Recurring Payments rose 6.7% to 7.73 million.

Variable Recurring Payments are an area of growing focus because they allow authorised recurring transfers where the payment amount can vary. Open Banking Limited said the increase in those transactions helped support overall payment volumes during June.

How did the system perform in June?

The June data also showed operational performance gains. Average response time, defined by Open Banking Limited as the time a provider takes to respond to a payment request, improved to 349 milliseconds, 50 milliseconds faster than the previous reporting period.

Availability remained high across the system. Open Banking Limited reported weighted availability of 99.80% and unweighted availability of 99.35% for June. User connections stood at 18.81 million, down 4.2% month on month.

The CMA9 institutions covered by the data are AIB Group, Bank of Ireland, Barclays Bank, HSBC Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, Northern Bank Limited, which operates as Danske Bank, NatWest Group and Santander.

Henk Van Hulle, chief executive of Open Banking Limited, said the milestones reinforced the UK’s position as a global leader in open banking and showed an ecosystem increasing in both scale and capability. He said the organisation’s next focus would be on resilience, performance and innovation as the UK moves into the next stage of open banking and open finance.

Open Banking Limited linked the growth to wider competition and innovation in financial services. The data does not provide a breakdown of end-user categories or the commercial volumes processed through individual providers.

This story draws on original reporting from Finextra Research.