Takeaways from last week #NFW24 event.
2024 Nordic Fintech Week - Open Finance takeaways: Two Parallel Universes. First, a huge thanks to Nordic Fintech Week and Thomas Krogh Jensen for inviting us to speak at this event! We had a great time with many good conversations. Everything was exceptionally well-organized, and the app-based networking ran smoothly, with good vibes from everyone. 👣 Interest in the Open Finance track Open Finance had a dedicated track and roundtable discussions, a clear indication that it’s becoming a major focus. Sessions were well attended overall. However, the main stage was reserved for "The AI Singularity" — clearly the hottest topic right now 🔥 (Planning to post soon on how AI and Open Finance fit together..) ☯️ Parallel Universes: Preparing vs. Executing There was an interesting contrast between talks - which broadly fit into two themes: - It’s important to start thinking about and preparing for open finance. - Here are our experiences from working with open finance. Part of the difference is semantics — when people say Open Finance, they might mean: - The upcoming EU regulation. - A solution that gathers investment data about a user via API. But there’s also a real divide: some organizations haves already built and deployed Open Finance-powered solutions, while others remain unaware of what’s possible today and have it on their long-term roadmap. 🇸🇪 🇩🇰 Aggregation coverage. Sweden vs Denmark Pensions - Denmark - You can get API access to ‘PensionsInfo’, which consolidates pension data in one place. - Sweden - No access to ‘minPension’, screen-scraping is actively prohibited. Investment accounts - Denmark - No - very limited direct API access. - Sweden - Very good coverage from multiple aggregation providers. ✏️ Summary With upcoming regulations, open finance is gaining momentum, but there are still significant gaps in organizations' knowledge of what is already available before the regulations take effect. The next few years will bring a strong focus on use cases and practical applications. One observation from my co-founder, Sergej Smirnov, during a roundtable discussion was that some organizations questioned the value of Open Finance, particularly why they should bear the burden of delivering data. However, it seemed they had not yet explored the potential upside it could offer them in return.