Mario Brkic, Innovation and Development at Erste Bank, discusses the role of banks in post-PSD2 Europe. Mario will be speaking at Mobey Day Toronto.
1. What impact has the entry of PSD2 into force in Jan had on the European Banking scene?
So after a long build up and a lot of theoretical talk on what would happen on the banking scene it was somewhat of a relief to see it start coming into force and to be able to see the first movements. I would say though that, from the banks side, the ones who started and made some significant movements are anyways the more progressive banks which were anyways pushing the agenda and working heavily on partnerships and new business models. Let’s wait and see though. It’s still early to see tectonic shifts, but the new foundation that has been created really does have the potential to massively change things.
2. What kind of role is Erste taking in post-PSD2 Europe?
I’d say quite an active role 🙂 We have built George (the new digital banking of Erste Group) as a “PSD2 ready” open banking platform. The strategy has been to really create both a marketplace for our users built on open principles, but also to use the opportunities of PSD2 to allow George users to aggregate their accounts. With our footprint in CEE and having George, as one platform, covering now 4 countries, the potential for partners is huge. In that context we also recently launched the Erste API hub (https://developers.erstegroup.com/), so I’m happy to say that we’re firmly moving forward.
3. Is open banking a threat or an opportunity for banks?
I think it’s equally both, depending on the banks and their strategies. At the beginning I expect most banks will want to position themselves as a “full-stack” provider, being the most attractive towards users. However after a while there will be a consolidation in the market, and some banks will gravitate towards some of the new roles (like being pure backend providers; for example). It’s going to be an interesting time ahead of us, for sure.
