Extending the Scope of Open Banking

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