The Centre for Finance, Innovation, and Technology (CFIT) — the private sector-led finance innovation body — has revealed the partners of its Open Finance coalition, which includes Scotland’s Smart Data Foundry and MBN Solutions.

According to CFIT, the time-limited, open finance-focused coalition aims to demonstrate the power of leveraging financial data to deliver better financial outcomes to consumers and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The Open Finance coalition is set to begin its work this summer to identify and unlock access to data sources that have the potential to improve financial outcomes for consumers and facilitate better access to financial services for SMEs.

After the initial work, it’s been said that working groups will then create specific outputs — such as new proofs of concept, products, or data partnerships — that could make a positive difference to both UK businesses and consumers.

Organisations committing to the Open Finance coalition include Amazon Web Services, IBM, Mastercard, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, EY, KPMG, Monzo, Revolut, Zopa Bank, Experian, and Innovate Finance, as well as others such as the City of London Corporation.

In terms of Scottish representation in the coalition, there’s the Smart Data Foundry — the Scots mission-led organisation helping the public, private, and third sectors to harness data for good — as well as tech and data recruitment agency MBN Solutions.

Speaking on the announcement of the coalition, Charlotte Crosswell OBE, Chair of CFIT, said: “We have the foundations and all the ingredients to drive Open Finance forward.

“Given the current challenges related to the cost of living, we firmly believe that by leveraging existing data and unlocking new datasets, we can have the biggest impact in the shortest time on the wellbeing of UK SMEs and consumers.

“We will be able to show the impact that an ambitious Open Finance roadmap can have. The time for action is now, to ensure that we continue to lead the world in financial innovation whilst maximising economic growth across all regions of the UK.”

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Bryn Coulthard, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Smart Data Foundry, also commented, saying: “Working with CFIT and the coalition partners to accelerate innovation in Open Finance is a natural alignment with Smart Data Foundry’s purpose to unlock the power of financial data to help improve people’s lives.

“We’re excited to work in coalition with so many fantastic organisations to create real impact in this area driving positive change for consumers and SMEs alike.”

DIGIT last reported on Smart Data Foundry — which is based at the University of Edinburgh’s Bayes Centre, the institution’s innovation hub for AI and data science — when it announced a new partnership and the launch of two new open-banking focused tools with Ozone API, the standards-based open API platform.