PSD3 and FIDA: The Next Generation of Open Banking in the EU

Open banking under PSD2 (2018) allowed third parties to access customer bank accounts via APIs with customer consent. This created an entire fintech segment: account aggregators (Tink, Plaid), payment initiation services (TrueLayer), expense categorizers. The next iteration—PSD3 and FIDA—expands the idea.

PSD3: What Changes in Banking

PSD3 (Payment Services Directive 3) was published by the European Commission in 2023 and will come into force gradually by 2026–2027. Key points:

• Better APIs. Strict technical standards for banks to provide APIs. Previously, each bank had its own API with varying completeness and quality; now a common minimum plus penalties for poor performance.
• Lower API fees. Banks are explicitly prohibited from charging fintechs for standard access operations.
• Fraud protection via spoofing. If a victim of social engineering transfers money to a fraudster, banks are required to compensate in more cases than before.

FIDA: Openness Beyond Banking

FIDA (Financial Data Access) is a separate regulation that extends the principle of the customer owns their data to:

• Insurance companies (opening data on policies, claims).
• Investment brokers (portfolios, transactions).
• Pension funds (savings, investment strategy).
• Crypto wallets of regulated services.

The customer can allow a third party to view and work with this data—just as currently works with bank accounts via open banking.

What Becomes Possible

Unified financial dashboard. A service that shows all your bank accounts, loans, investments, insurance, and pension savings in one window. Previously, each category lived separately; now—in one API.

Automatic insurance comparison. A service can view your current policies and immediately offer better ones. Previously—manually filling out forms on each service.

Investment marketplaces. Brokers can allow third parties to connect to a client's portfolio for analytics, rebalancing, tax optimization.

What Raised Concerns

Regulators and consumer organizations point out: expanded access to financial data means increased risk of leaks and misuse. FIDA introduces stricter requirements for user consent (one-click revocation, data minimization) and mandatory certification of finance information service providers. In practice, effectiveness will be seen in a few years.

Timeline

PSD3—phases 2025–2027. FIDA—technical standards being developed until 2027, full application 2028–2029. This is a long story, but the direction is already clear.