Region

Jurisdiction

Regulator

2023-04-02

Extending the Scope of Open Banking

The Central Bank of Bahrain proposes amendments to its open banking regulations to extend digital financial service access to legal persons. The updated framework requires retail banks to share consenting corporate customer data with Account Information and Payment Initiation Service Providers, while mandating aligned API specifications, onboarding processes, and security standards. These changes explicitly define the required data sets and applicable product categories to standardize corporate open banking operations across licensed entities.

Bahrain

Central Bank of Bahrain

Central Bank of Bahrain

OG/92/2023  
5th March 2023  

Chief Executive Office  
All Retail Banks  
All Account Information Service Providers  
All Payment Initiation Service Providers  
Manama  
Kingdom of Bahrain  

Dear Sir/ Madam,  

**Consultation: Extending the Scope of Open Banking**

Further to the CBB’s objective of continuing to widen the scope of customer centric digital offerings in financial services, the CBB is hereby proposing amendments to existing open banking related regulations in the General Requirements (GR) Module of the CBB Rulebook - Volumes 1 and 2 and the Open Banking (OB) Module of the CBB Rulebook - Volume 5, to allow legal persons access to open banking offerings. The proposed amendments address the following requirements:  

1. Banks to provide AISPs and PISPs access to information belonging to their customers who are legal persons with their consent.  
2. AISPs/PISPs to develop and agree with banks, the API specifications, customer onboarding and related service and operational standards consistent with the security standards and guidelines in BOBF.  
3. The data required to be shared by banks and the nature of products and services that are subject to the above requirements.  

The proposed amendments will be available on the CBB website (www.cbb.gov.bh) under the “open consultations” section.  

All licensees to whom this circular is addressed are requested to provide their comments, including “nil comments”, on the proposed amendments in an editable format to consultation@cbb.gov.bh by 2nd April 2023.  

Yours faithfully,  
Rasheed M. Al-Maraj  
Governor  

cc: Bahrain Association of Banks  

هاتف · +٩٧٣ ١٧٥٤ ٧٥٠ · فاكس +٩٧٣ ١٧٥٤ ٧٥٠٠ · ص.ب ٢٧، المنامة، مملكة البحرين  
T +973 1754 7500, +973 1754 7555, F +973 1753 7799, P.O. Box 27, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, www.cbb.gov.bh