Alan Ainsworth

Policy & Strategy Director
Open Banking Implementation Entity

Alan Ainsworth is the Strategy and Policy Director at the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE). OBIE was set up by the UK’s competition regulator the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to develop open banking standards and ensure effective implementation by the UK’s biggest banks, with the aim of driving competition and innovation in retail banking.

Alan led the work on creating the OBIE’s Revised Roadmap, and works closely with the Standards team to bring the activities on the Roadmap to life. As part of that, Alan has been instrumental in obtaining agreement from the CMA to add Variable Recurring Payments for Sweeping to the CMA Order which underpins open banking in the UK.

Alan is particularly keen to extend open banking into open finance and open everything, believing that giving people control over their data can deliver substantial benefits for consumers and businesses.

Alan has been interested in and involved in open data for financial services since the early days of the UK’s “midata” programme in 2011, where he was an original Steering Group Member. He has advised businesses on payments and open banking legislation including the Interchange Fee Regulation and the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2).

Alan spent much of his career at Barclays, where he had senior roles in payments, retail banking, citizenship and government relations. He has also worked at global payments business Paysafe.

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