Is Open Banking safe?

Open Banking is designed to let you share financial information with regulated services without giving them your bank login details or unrestricted access to your account.

That does not mean there is no risk. Any service that handles financial information needs strong security, and it still matters who you connect to and what permission you give them. But connecting an account through Open Banking is very different from handing an app your password and letting it log into your bank on your behalf.

With MoneyAngel, the connection is read-only. It can receive the financial information you agree to share, but it cannot use that connection to make payments or move money from your account.

What actually happens when you connect?

When you connect an account to MoneyAngel, you choose your bank and are taken to your bank’s normal app or website.

You sign in with your bank, not with MoneyAngel, and approve the connection there. Your bank then shares the information covered by the permission you have given.

MoneyAngel does not receive your bank password. It cannot see accounts you have not chosen to connect, and its read-only access cannot be used to make a payment or transfer money.

That is an important part of how Open Banking works. Your bank continues to handle authentication, including the security checks it normally uses when confirming that it is really you.

What are you actually giving access to?

You are giving permission for financial information to be shared.

Depending on the account and the permission involved, that can include things such as balances and transaction history. That information can obviously be sensitive. Someone looking at your transactions may be able to learn quite a lot about how you live and spend your money.

So the security question is not only “Can this app take money from my account?”

With a read-only MoneyAngel connection, it cannot.

There is also the question of how safely your financial information is handled once it has been shared. MoneyAngel’s current security measures include read-only Open Banking, two-factor or biometric authentication and UK data residency.

Is Open Banking regulated?

Yes. Open Banking operates within a regulated framework in the UK, and businesses providing regulated Open Banking services need the appropriate authorisation or registration.

That means you do not have to rely entirely on what a company says about itself. Providers can be checked against official registers before you connect an account.

Regulation does not make fraud, cybercrime or human error impossible, but it creates rules around how account information can be accessed and shared.

What can you do to reduce the risk?

Most of the precautions are fairly ordinary. Make sure you are using the genuine app or website before connecting an account. When your bank asks you to sign in, check that you are really within your bank’s normal sign-in process. Be cautious if somebody unexpectedly contacts you and asks you to connect an account or share banking details.

MoneyAngel will not need you to give it your online banking password in order to establish an Open Banking connection.

You also remain in control of the connection. If you no longer want an account to share new information, you can withdraw the permission.

So, is it safe to connect your bank account to MoneyAngel?

Connecting through Open Banking does mean allowing financial information to leave your bank and be used by another service, so it is reasonable to want to know how that information is protected.

What it does not mean is giving MoneyAngel control of your bank account.

You authenticate with your bank, choose what you connect and can withdraw that access later. MoneyAngel’s Open Banking access is read-only, so it can use the information to help you understand your finances without being able to move or spend your money.

That distinction is probably the most important thing to understand before connecting.

Another question is what happens to your money if the service itself runs into trouble. Read our guide to what happens if a fintech app shuts down or gets hacked.