Open Banking: For faster referencing checks
Open Banking allows your bank to share a snapshot of your financial information with us instantly and securely. It’s a one-time access authorisation that ends once the checks are complete.
Because it is significantly faster and more secure than providing a more traditional bank statement, renters who use Open Banking often pass referencing in a single day. Open Banking helps our referencing teams to make quick decisions as they can more easily see how you will pay the rent. It’s not an income check, but rather a snapshot of your affordability.
What is Open Banking?
Open Banking is a government-backed scheme that provides a secure way for you to electronically share financial records from your online bank account with third parties. It’s the same technology your bank uses to allow you to view all your accounts with other providers from within their app, and to apply for mortgages and other loans. You choose which account you share with us, it is completely secure and, because we receive the relevant information, referencing checks can be carried out the same day.
How it works
Open Banking requires your permission. So, when you complete your online application form you’ll be asked to connect to your bank account. Only information that has been pre-agreed with your bank is released to our platform. It is not giving full access to your bank account, just specific pieces of information we need to make an assessment.
With this Open Banking data, we receive a snapshot from the past 12 months, categorising the income and any rent/mortgage payments so that we can more easily make an affordability assessment. As it’s only a one-time feed, once the data has been shared with us, the connection is cut off immediately.
Here are the steps and stages you will go through:
1. Sign into your online bank account & choose which account to share.
2. Your data is securely shared by your bank directly with our online system.
3. We review your transactions to confirm your income & rent payments.
Is Open Banking secure?
Yes! Open Banking uses bank-level security and end-to-end encryption to establish a secure connection directly with your bank. Your bank only shares pre-agreed information with us, so your data is secure at all times, and you’ll never be asked to share any of your banking passwords or logins with us or anyone else. It’s a one-time access, so once we have received the data, the connection is instantly closed and we will not have any ongoing access to your account information.
Why use Open Banking?
Open Banking significantly speeds up the referencing process because the key financial information we need is shared at the click of a button. Collating and emailing bank statements is a thing of the past! (Even more good news because Open Banking is much more secure than email too!)
So, unless your letting agent has specifically requested that we obtain a reference for you, your checks can typically be completed the same day when you use Open Banking.
Do I have to use Open Banking?
It’s entirely up to you whether you choose to use Open Banking. However, if you choose not to, you will still need to provide bank statements as proof of income and/or rent payments, if requested.
Choosing to use Open Banking is not only more secure than providing bank statements, but it is also significantly quicker. All the information we need is available at the click of a button, securely shared through our online system.
Banks we can connect to
We can access UK bank accounts from the following banks. If your bank is not on this list unfortunately you will not be able to use Open Banking at this time. We hope to add more banks to this list soon.
- Allied Irish Bank
- aqua
- Bank of Ireland
- Bank of Ireland Business
- Bank of Scotland (BOS)
- Bank of Scotland Commercial
- Barclays
- Barclays (no app)
- Barclays Corporate
- Capital One
- Cashplus
- Cater Allen
- Coutts
- Cumberland Building Society
- Cynergy Bank
- Danske Bank
- First Direct
- First Trust Bank
- Halifax Online
- HSBC Bank
- HSBC Kinetic
- Lloyds
- Lloyds Commercial
- M&S Bank
- MBNA
- Mettle
- Monese
- Monzo
- Nationwide Building Society
- Natwest
- Revolut
- Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS)
- Sainsbury’s Bank
- Santander
- Silicone Valley Bank
- Starling
- Tesco Bank
- Tide
- TSB
- Ulster Bank
- Vanquis Bank
- Virgin Money
- Virgin Money (accounts after Dec 2019)