The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) today (December 6) issued the final rules on “open banking”, which will facilitate the provision of a variety of innovative services for bank customers in the kingdom.

Khalid Hamad, the executive director of Banking Supervision at the CBB said: "The open banking initiative will have a significant positive impact on the quality of services offered to consumers in the Kingdom and will give the financial sector in the Kingdom a competitive edge in the Middle East."

Open banking services entail the provision of two broad categories of services, said the top official.

The first is “account information service” which provides customers with access to all bank account information in an aggregated manner through a single platform, while the second category is “payment initiation service.”

This service allows licensed third parties to initiate payments on behalf of customers while allowing seamless transfers between different customer accounts through a mobile based application, he added.-TradeArabia News Service