Operational Guidelines

Dedicated Interface Requirements

This version is:

Published 3 years ago 21 Oct 2021

Guidance for ASPSPs to demonstrate that their dedicated interface has been designed and tested in line with EBA requirements, that has been appropriately stress tested and to evidence wide usage by TPPs.

Other pages in this section

This chapter provides guidance on the overall expectation for ASPSPs to demonstrate that their dedicated interface has been designed and tested in line with EBA requirements; that has been appropriately stress tested; and to evidence wide usage by TPPs.

OBIE deems this essential in order for ASPSPs to successfully deliver the necessary functionality for the Open Banking ecosystem and to facilitate the creation of seamless customer experiences, which do not constitute obstacles for the provision of TPP services.

OBIE considers that the implementation of effective design and testing (including stress testing) and the creation of obstacle-free customer journeys will provide TPPs with the confidence to offer their service to their customers with the knowledge that an ASPSP’s dedicated interface will support rather than hinder the provision of their service.

The EBA Guidance means that ASPSPs must ensure consistent engagement with TPPs within their design and testing processes so that issues are identified and rectified as early as possible. Robust stress testing will ensure that the dedicated interface is capable of dealing with not only anticipated demands but with higher-than-usual peak periods. Wide usage of the dedicated interface is required to show that it is capable of supporting a diverse set of TPP business models and use cases.

OBIE has also briefly outlined what ASPSPs need to consider so as not to present obstacles to TPPs. This is covered more extensively within the Customer Experience Guidelines1.

1 https://standards.openbanking.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Customer-Experience-Guidelines-V1-1.pdf

In this chapter

Design & Testing

The OBIE Standard has been developed over a period of 18 months in collaboration with nine of Europe’s largest financial institutions as well as 500+ representatives from other ASPSPs, TPP communities, PSD2 and consumer stakeholder groups, and prominent fintech leaders.

This version was published 3 Years & 1 Month ago 21 Oct 2021

Testing Facility

ASPSPs are required to provide a Testing Facility to allow authorised and pre-authorised1 TPPs to undertake connection and functional testing of their products and services using non-PSU data. Issues identified in the testing process are useful to ASPSPs, alerting them to potential issues with their production environment.

This version was published 3 Years & 1 Month ago 21 Oct 2021

Stress Testing

Stress testing should either be conducted on the production interface (and underlying production systems) and/or staging/pre-production systems which have similar infrastructure, so there can be certainty that the test results will represent what will happen in a real-word scenario.

This version was published 3 Years & 1 Month ago 21 Oct 2021

Wide Usage

The Final EBA Guidelines have clarified that the wide usage requirements not only include the number of TPPs that make use of the dedicated interface but also the number of successful responses of ASPSPs to TPP requests, the number of available TPPs, and the results of testing, including the resolution of any issues that have been identified.

This version was published 3 Years & 1 Month ago 21 Oct 2021

Obstacles

EBA Guideline 5 places a requirement on ASPSPs to ensure that their dedicated interface does not create obstacles for the provision of services by PISPs, AISPs and CBPIIs. 

This version was published 3 Years & 1 Month ago 21 Oct 2021