Having commenced the first phase of the Bahrain Open Banking Framework (Bahrain OBF) in May 2020, the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has now instructed all retail banks and financial institutions to implement the second phase by the 30th June 2022.
The second phase includes requirements covering the sharing of open data, domestic and international standing orders, international future dated payments and bulk payment.
“The new directives of the second phase of the Bahrain OBF will provide an opportunity for retail banks and financial institutions to provide a wider range of services with greater efficiency, at lower costs and in a more customer-centric manner. This will further enhance the competition and efficiency of the financial system keeping in view changing consumer trends, and expedite the transformation towards a digital economy on a wider scale,” Yousef Al Fadhel, the executive director of corporate services at the CBB, said. The Bahrain OBF is part of the CBB’s initiative to enhance the Bahraini financial sector to remain competitive in light of changing consumer behavior. The framework is designed to also support technical standards such as application programming interfaces, customer experience guidelines and cybersecurity standards.