Open Savings, Investments and Pensions (OSIP)

Open Savings, Investments & Pensions (OSIP) is a TISA initiative to create a set of API standards for savings, investment and pensions products. OSIP builds on Open Banking which enables consumers to share their current account data with third parties to access new products and services.  OSIP allows consumers to share their savings, investment and pension data with third parties too.

As an example, a consumer can choose to share information about their financial products with a Personal Financial Management app giving them a single overview of their financial position. A consolidated view allows a provider to offer new insights; visualise projections of someone’s financial situation; nudge new positive money management behaviours; and refer people to advice when it looks like they need it. 

Open Banking apps have already helped people set aside money to a savings account. Round-up savings or micro-saving small amounts is helping people on low incomes start saving for the first time and see that investing is possible. OSIP enables industry to go beyond Open Banking by providing standard and accessible APIs to accounts not currently required by regulation.  As a result people can compare accounts more easily, automatically switch to a better rate, automate their savings or make more informed trade-offs about whether to save, invest, spend, borrow or consolidate.  OSIP facilitates a wide range of advice services too. For instance, apps can nudge people towards getting financial advice earlier, perhaps for the first time. OSIP gives an adviser easier ways to fact-find and keep track of their clients’ situation. With more visibility of people’s all-round financial situation and future goals, advisers can set rules with their client to automate investments or drawdowns, ensuring their client’s money is always working as hard as it can for them.

Our work supports the UK Financial Wellbeing Strategy to increase the number of savers in the UK, those accessing debt advice and planning for later life while reducing the numbers of people reliant on credit for food and bills.

The UK Government is pushing forward with its National Data Strategy to make data more accessible and available to support competition and growth in the economy. The department of Business, Enterprise, Innovation and Skills recently published their feedback statement on Smart Data saying they plan to legislate to make it possible to mandate industry involvement in Smart Data initiatives across the economy. And the FCA consultation asked what might be learnt from Open Banking for Open Finance.   TISA champions innovation for the benefit of citizens, our industry and the nation.

We are ahead of the curve and have already been working with the savings and investment industry as well as established and upcoming FinTechs to develop OSIP giving the industry new opportunities to innovate and compete for better consumer outcomes. Together we are leading the industry to Open Finance rather than waiting for regulation.  We are empowering the UK to continue to lead the world in a truly open economy that is transparent, accessible and good for people and planet.

Open Finance allows people to share their data with third parties who can help them understand their situations much more quickly and conveniently.  Such products have the potential to help people take control of their money and get the help and advice they need, leading to better overall outcomes for consumers.

In our prototypes we explore two future journeys for our fictional character Charlie: one where her office makes her redundant and she receives a lump sum; the other where she starts home working, her commuting costs come down and she finds she’s more money than she had before. These prototypes demonstrate just two examples of many products and services which industry can deliver using the safe and standardised API access to savings, investment and pension products which OSIP affords.

Open Savings, Investments & Pensions is a fundamental component of Open Finance which will enable our industry to become fully digitally enabled, allowing consumers through the web or an app to:

• View all their savings, investments and debt – whether they be in unit linked funds, with profits, cash and in whatever wrapper (ISA, GIA, Pension, Bond, …); in a consistent format
• Take control of an manage their short & long-term wealth goals
• Enable them to interrogate and report on their savings, investments and debt to understand how they are performing and provide them to take more control over their financial wellbeing through making informed decisions
• Enable improved access to advice and guidance and to facilitate the ability of consumers to make decisions
• Enable consumers, or their advisers, to act on the decisions made from their review of their holdings

Long Term Consumer Benefits

Our latest consumer research findings were revealed in our last Open Meeting, which took place on 6th October. 91% of people found the concept interesting and the vast majority (94%) thought they would be likely to use such an app if security could be guaranteed.
🔴REC – You can access our last open meeting on-demand for free here. 

You can also read the research report findings here.

Phase 3 of the project is now underway, which is the Implementation Roadmap and work on Governance. To find out more about the project and getting involved, use the contact form at the bottom of this page.