PSD2 and Open Banking regulation in Europe

[abishekmuthian]

One of the long term goals of Open Payment Host is to have support for direct banking APIs, I was told PSD2 and Open Banking regulation in Europe enables that. So in this thread we'll discuss the possible options to integrate direct banking APIs for European countries.

[john-frandsen]

Good thread to start. I work in this space (building open-banking.io) and can give a practical overview of what the EU landscape actually looks like for direct bank API access.

PSD2 AIS in practice:

Under PSD2 (now PSD3/PSR1), EU/UK banks must provide free read-only access to account data (balances, transactions) via standardized APIs. The user authorizes directly in their bank app — you receive time-limited consent tokens, not credentials. This is Account Information Services (AIS). Payment Initiation Services (PIS) is the write-side equivalent for initiating payments.

The real barriers:

1. eIDAS QWAC certificate (EUR 5,000-15,000/year depending on issuer) — required for production access to bank APIs. This is the main blocker for self-hosted or small projects.
2. Per-bank API differences — despite standardization goals, each bank's API has quirks. Aggregators like Nordigen/GoCardless, Tink, and Yapily abstract this but charge per-connection.
3. Certificate-free paths exist — some TPPs offer a sponsored model where they hold the eIDAS cert and you connect through their API, avoiding the upfront cost but introducing per-connection pricing.

Practical path for OPH:

The most realistic integration is via an AIS aggregator rather than individual bank APIs directly. Each aggregator covers thousands of banks across EU/UK. Key tradeoffs to evaluate: whether the aggregator requires your own eIDAS cert, their pricing model (per-connection vs flat), API quality, and bank coverage in your target countries.

I am building a certificate-free path to PSD2 AIS specifically for self-hosted and small-team setups (open-banking.io) — happy to share more about the API shape and bank coverage if it is useful for planning the integration architecture.

[tomw1808]

Are you a solo dev on that project (open-banking)? How can I get in touch with you if I may ask? would love to learn more

[nicolaj-hartmann]

Hey Thomas. Currently we are 2 developers working on the project and the target is to get a full blown financial institution registered as both PISP and AISP based in Denmark within the next year.

You are always welcome to reach us at info@open-banking.io. With the current price tag and offering email support if needed.