Open Banking Innovation

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ESG STORY

We live in a world where technology plays a greater role in our lives than ever before, and there are no signs of this changing. To keep their competitive advantage and survive in this environment, where disruption is routine, companies need to reshape their business models and structures through digital transformation.

Banking services are no exception. UniCredit Bank Austria recognises this imperative, and we are constantly growing and evolving our services to offer new solutions to the more than 55% of our clients who are Digital Active Users.

We were the first bank in Austria to embrace the revolution of "open banking" with two innovative and easy-to-use tools for clients. The first was our free multi-banking feature in 24You Internet Banking, and the second our highly rated MobileBanking app. Through these multi-banking services, our clients have their accounts in a single place at their fingertips. We help 800,000 clients access their other bank payment accounts directly from their UCBA account and make SEPA transfer payments, all the while ensuring their financial data is safe.

With Bank Austria's innovations, every client's financial information is available to them, stored in a completely safe and protected environment as accessible in just a few clicks.

Many people are talking about Open Banking, and in 2021 we successfully launched the first application under the EU's new Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) guidelines as a pioneer in Austria. Our goal as Austria's leading multi-channel bank is to make our essential services available to every client, regardless of time, place, or how they use them. We are now taking this one step further and enabling our clients to also view and manage payment transaction accounts at other banks in our Internet banking 24You and our top-rated MobileBanking.

Robert Zadrazil, CEO of UniCredit Bank Austria

As "open banking" changes, we are keeping pace. In 2019, the PSD2 directive came into the EU, with new rules designed to create a level playing field for innovative financial services, while making payments more secure and protecting people's financial data in an "open banking" system.

The directive required that from September that year, banks would offer third-party providers their dedicated Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs. A bank's API is the software tool that manages the interaction between a client's bank account and a third-party service provider.

Always ready to embrace developments like this, UniCredit Bank Austria is proud to currently be the first and only bank in Austria to manage third-party accounts via secure API interfaces in its internet and mobile banking.

With this development, we are ushering in a new chapter in digital banking and are one of the first real banking platforms within the framework of the new PSD2 guidelines in Austria.

Robert Zadrazil, CEO of UniCredit Bank Austria