The United Kingdom government has commissioned a study of the feasibility of UK banks giving customers the ability to share their transactional data with third parties via an open standard API. First mentioned alongside the autumn statement back in December, the chancellor has now outlined plans for a mandatory open banking API standard during the recent budget in March.Increased competition and the unbundling of bank services by innovative financial tech developers is continuing to provide customers with more services. Significant changes to banking have become inevitable, and at a first glance this move could be interpreted as penalizing banks. It opens up some of the information banks had previously controlled, but making it accessible via an open standard API should strengthen their positions as a platform.