(Apologies for cross-posting but I think it's appropriate in this case) I'm a member of the hi:project http://hi-project.org/ (click 90 sec. video) Today's newsletter http://hi-project.org/?wysija-page=1&controller=email&action=view&email_id=17&wysijap=subscriptions-2&user_id=139 had interesting links to open banking API initiatives:
*" Retail banks*. Her Majesty's Treasury, ably supported by the Open Data Institute, is progressing an open banking API https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/data-sharing-and-open-data-in-ba.... With the involvement of the Open Bank Project https://openbankproject.com/about/, located in Germany. According to the trade newspaper American Banker, "U.K. Push for Open Bank APIs Makes U.S. Look So Last Century http://www.americanbanker.com/news/bank-technology/uk-push-for-open-bank-api... ."
I don't know what the HM Treasury will conclude after their open banking API "Call for Evidence" but I can see dark clouds for hi:proj, decentralization, and VRM if the Open Bank Project and the American Banker articles are the path. The problem is that these articles promote an app store controlled by the bank rather than the individual. This effectively shuts out open source apps and introduces a rent-seeking app certification process controlled by the bank just like the control by Apple or Google through their app-store. Now, to be sure, I have no problem at all paying my bank a transaction fee for checks or API access. I do however have a big problem if my bank restricts who I can send a check to or what app can connect to my account. This is exactly what I am directly involved in with hehathcare APIs in the US. Here, for example, is my testimony a couple of weeks ago: https://www.healthit.gov/FACAS/sites/faca/files/APITF_Testimony_AdrianGroppe... The ability to grant unconstrained ***third party*** access to an API that is all over the HM Treasury call is absolutely essential to decentralization and, I would claim VRM. This is what UMA and HIE of One is all about. It's much easier in US healthcare because US law treats access to patient data as a "right" and will likely impose a corresponding "duty" to respect an individual's right to specify their "agent" for access to the API. In the HIE of One (and hopefully HEART) approaches, the individual specifies the UMA-standard Authorization Server and that Authorization Server, acting as my agent, has sole discretion over what app and what app user can see my data (or is it midata?) at the hospital or the bank. Adrian -- Adrian Gropper MD PROTECT YOUR FUTURE - RESTORE Health Privacy! HELP us fight for the right to control personal health data. DONATE: http://patientprivacyrights.org/donate-2/