What is Open Banking?

As financial transactions become digital, managing accounts at different banks separately can make budget tracking difficult. Open banking is a model that enables the sharing of specific data and certain transactions at banks with authorized applications via a secure technical infrastructure (mostly APIs) with user consent.

Important distinction: Open banking is not sharing the bank password. Authorization is done within the bank’s own secure flow; permissions can be limited based on purpose, duration, and scope, and can be revoked when desired. This framework can also offer a more fluid and guided transaction experience within some payment solutions.

What Does Open Banking Do?

 Open banking increases financial visibility by combining scattered financial information in a single framework. If salary, credit cards, savings, and automatic payments are distributed across different banks, the budget remains “fragmented”; open banking brings these parts together.

• Shows accounts on a single screen: Balances and movements are monitored quickly; forgotten accounts/cards/automatic payments are noticed more easily.
• Strengthens spending and budget control: Transactions can be categorized; “how much for which item” is visible instead of the total.
• Provides decision support: It allows reading unnecessary expenses, fixed expenses, and the credit card debt/savings balance more clearly.
• Can speed up flows: Some transactions can be completed in fewer steps with a flow directing to the bank’s secure approval screen (some payment solutions offer this experience).
• Standardizes security: Instead of password sharing, it proceeds with authorization managed by the bank and, in most scenarios, strong authentication (SCA).

Open Banking Example

• Multi-bank view: The application lets you select a bank → directs to the bank’s screen → data/permissions to be shared are shown → after approval, accounts appear on a single panel. Total balance and regular payments are monitored more clearly.
• Catching unnecessary expenses: Regular recurring expenses (unused memberships, forgotten automatic payments, etc.) can be detected faster. Critical question: Is the application asking for really necessary data?
• Payment step: During payment, one goes to the bank’s secure approval screen, and the transaction is completed after approval. In cases requiring partial payment, proceeding with separate records for each step provides ease of tracking.

Open Banking Regulation

 The open banking framework in the field of payments in Turkey is shaped by CBRT (Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey) regulations. Two prominent services:

• Payment initiation service: Enables initiating payment at the user’s request.
• Account information service: Presents the information of one or more accounts in a consolidated manner with user consent.

The basic assurance from the user’s perspective: sharing is subject to approval, permissions are kept proportionate and compatible with the purpose, and the bank’s screen and the SCA (Strong Customer Authentication) step are clearly visible during authorization. KVKK and banking secrecy regulations also support the “purpose and proportionality” principle.

What is Open Banking Money Transfer Feature?

 Money transfer in open banking mostly works with payment initiation: the application initiates the transaction, the transfer is completed within the bank’s processes. Thus, transactions such as money order (havale)/EFT/FAST can become more fluid with controlled redirection without entering and exiting the bank separately.

General flow: bank selection → sender/receiver information → amount/description/transaction type/fees → bank’s approval screen → result.

When is it useful?

• When wishing to perform transactions in a single flow while working with multiple banks
• When wishing to also complete the payment step within the application where budget/expense tracking is done
• When each transfer needs to proceed with a separate record in partial payment scenarios

Control Table for Open Banking Money Transfer

Open banking makes budget tracking and payment flows more manageable by enabling seeing accounts and transactions at different banks in a single framework. For the healthiest usage, it is important to limit the permission scope according to need, to work only with authorized applications, and to check the bank’s approval screen and strong authentication steps in every transaction. In this way, both security and financial control are strengthened at the same time; with the right payment solutions, the process becomes more fluid and trackable.