What is Open Banking, and is it safe?
Open Banking is a regulated system that lets you securely give an app access to your bank data — through your bank's own login, with your explicit consent. In Europe it is built on a law called PSD2. It covers two kinds of service: account information (reading balances and transactions) and payment initiation. A budgeting app like ZivaFinance uses only the first, which is read-only: it can show your accounts and cards in one place without ever seeing your bank password or being able to move your money.
How Open Banking works
- You choose an app and ask it to connect to your bank.
- You are sent to your bank's own secure login to approve the connection.
- The bank then shares your account and transaction data with the app — read-only.
- The app never sees your password, and the access is limited to what you approved.
Is Open Banking safe?
Yes, when the provider is regulated. The safeguards are built into the system:
- Regulated. Providers must be licensed and supervised under PSD2. Regulation sets the rules; it does not vouch for every app, so check who the provider is and what the app stores.
- Read-only for account information. An account-information connection like ZivaFinance's can see your data but cannot make payments or transfers. Payment initiation is a separate service you would have to authorise separately.
- Your bank's login. You authorise through the bank, so the app never handles your password.
- Revocable. You can withdraw access at any time, from the app or your bank.
- GDPR. Your data is protected by European privacy law.
What you can do with it
Open Banking is what makes modern finance apps possible: seeing every account and card in one place, automatic budgeting, spending insights, and cash-flow forecasts — all without manual entry. It puts your own financial data to work for you.
Open Banking, put to work
ZivaFinance uses regulated Open Banking — through Enable Banking, a licensed account-information provider, under a consent you can revoke at any time — to bring your bank accounts and cards into one calm picture, with automatic categorisation, a day-by-day forecast of the next 90 days, and an AI coach. It is read-only and never moves your money — in 14 languages. Try it free for 30 days.
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This is general information, not financial or legal advice.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Open Banking?
Open Banking is a regulated system that lets you securely give an app access to your bank data through your bank's own login. For a budgeting app that access is read-only (account information); payment initiation is a separate service. In Europe it is based on the PSD2 law.
Is Open Banking safe?
Yes, when the provider is regulated. Access is read-only, you authorise it through your bank so the app never sees your password, it cannot move your money, and you can revoke access at any time.
Can an Open Banking app move my money?
A read-only budgeting app like ZivaFinance cannot make payments or transfers. It only reads your data to give you insight. Payment features are a separate, explicitly authorised capability.
How do I stop an app from accessing my bank?
You can revoke access at any time, either inside the app or through your bank's own settings, and the connection stops immediately.