The best financial services software for EU banks with open banking obligations

Temenos sells the layer that faces third-party providers as its own product: Temenos Open Banking is delivered as part of Temenos Digital with support for the Berlin Group and UK Open Banking schemes, and its consent dashboards let a bank's customers view and revoke consents in real time. That native module and those customer consent controls are why we name Temenos the best financial services software for an EU bank with open banking obligations. The crown covers the open-banking route a bank selects, which is a separate decision from changing a core banking system.

Finastra is the better pick for a bank that keeps Essence or Equation: Finastra's app listing offers a Salt Edge compliance app pre-integrated with both cores, with a portal and test environments for third-party providers (TPPs) in the package. Mambu suits a bank that chooses a SaaS core and wants the open-banking service run for it, because Mambu's partner page has Salt Edge supplying the components along with monitoring, maintenance, updates and first-line support.

What should an EU bank weigh in an open banking route?

Under PSD2, an account information provider works only on the customer's explicit consent. For each route, have the proposal identify the consent product and the control a customer uses to withdraw a consent, and name the owner of releases and support for them.

PSD2 also requires strong customer authentication when a customer accesses a payment account online or initiates an electronic payment, and that includes access through a TPP. The authentication step is therefore part of this purchase. Ask whose app or flow the customer sees and how it connects to the identity system the bank already runs.

The UK has its own Payment Services Regulations and its own Open Banking Standard, so support for the UK standard serves a bank's UK business and does not establish compliance with EU law. For the EU interface, get the API scheme and its version written into the proposal.

Article 34 of the EU technical standards on strong authentication and secure communication has a TPP identify itself with a qualified eIDAS certificate, and the European Banking Authority says the certificate specifies the role the provider is authorized for. Something in the bank's stack has to read that certificate and check the role, so ask which product does it and who holds the subscription to the register or directory behind the check.

The same standards require a testing facility with support for TPPs, and a fallback route through the customer-facing interface when the dedicated one has problems. A national authority can exempt a dedicated interface from the fallback requirement once the statutory conditions are met. That decision belongs to the authority, and it is a different mechanism from the exemptions PSD2 allows from strong authentication. Confirm whether the proposal supplies a fallback channel or assistance with the exemption application.

Mambu documents its Streaming API as an add-on that is not enabled on standard packages, which shows why event delivery belongs in the quote. Temenos's events overview covers JMS and Kafka delivery for events on its platform, and the Essence product page mentions event publishing. Have each vendor name the events your other systems need, consent changes and TPP requests among them, and the charge for delivering them.

For a bank seeking the fallback exemption, the conditions include satisfactory TPP testing and at least three months of widespread use of the interface, so the timeline that counts runs past the technical go-live. Article 32 of the standards also has the bank publish quarterly statistics on its website about the availability and performance of the interface, and a vendor dashboard that shows API performance does not settle who compiles those figures. Ask each vendor for a named EU bank live on the exact route it proposes and for a schedule written for your scope.

EU interface requirements that apply on any route

Temenos, Finastra and Mambu on the open banking route

Temenos: the open banking module is a Temenos product

Temenos files Temenos Open Banking under its core banking regulatory-compliance products and describes it as API-driven banking and authorization flows delivered as part of Temenos Digital. The product page states out-of-the-box support for the Berlin Group and UK Open Banking schemes, with other geographies and standards reached through Temenos Exchange partners. Have the Berlin Group version written into the proposal, and if you run the Temenos core without Temenos Digital, have the fit confirmed for your setup.

Customers view and revoke consents in real time on the module's consent dashboards, which the page links to GDPR and Open Banking standards. Authorization runs inside Temenos Digital as app-to-app and integrated flows that use real-time data from the Temenos core, and the page says they support multiple authentication models.

Temenos's PSD2 factsheet from 2020 says eIDAS and security checks are handled at the bank's own API gateway. In that document Temenos supplies a check of a TPP's role and status through an automated interface to a European open banking directory, on condition that the bank holds its own subscription to a directory or a national authority's register. Ask Temenos to name the gateway and the directory in the deployment it proposes for you and to state who owns each check. The same scoping should cover the TPP test facility and the fallback approach.

Temenos's developer documentation describes events as notifications of state changes, delivered as JSON messages posted to a topic that subscribers reach through middleware such as Kafka. Its events overview prefers JMS point-to-point messaging with once-only delivery for events, and Kafka or other publish-and-subscribe messaging with at-least-once delivery for data events. Both pages describe the Temenos platform in general, so ask which consent and TPP events the module publishes and what the feed costs.

Finastra: a listed Salt Edge app for Essence and Equation

Finastra's app listing presents the open banking compliance app as published by Salt Edge and files it under universal banking, and the current Essence product page shows it among related apps. The listing's package covers test and live environments for TPPs on the account information and payment initiation APIs, a TPP developer portal, a TPP management and verification API, a consent management SDK for the bank's web interface, and a fallback channel and/or an exemption from it. The app is offered cloud-hosted or on-premise.

Finastra's 2021 release announcing the collaboration says the Salt Edge product covers the Berlin Group standards for the EU and UK open banking. For strong authentication, the listing has Salt Edge supplying a mobile-first app that meets the SCA and dynamic linking requirements.

The Essence page says partners integrate through open APIs and an event-driven architecture, and it mentions event publishing in the product description. Ask Finastra which transport carries those events and what the feed costs, for Essence and for Equation separately.

The listing says pre-integration with Essence and Equation through FusionFabric.cloud APIs lets clients go live in one month. That estimate describes the pre-integrated app, so ask for a schedule that covers your own configuration and your testing with TPPs. Have the fallback wording pinned down in the contract as well: an exemption is granted by the bank's authority, so ask what assistance the quoted app includes.

Mambu: Salt Edge runs the compliance service beside a SaaS core

Mambu's partner page describes Salt Edge as pre-integrated with the Mambu core and says Salt Edge supplies the required open-banking components along with monitoring, maintenance, updates and first-line support. The page names PSD2 in the EU and UK Open Banking as the frameworks covered. For the EU interface, ask which API scheme and version the service exposes in your deployment.

Salt Edge's compliance product page lists a dedicated TPP environment with developer documentation and a test facility that mirrors production, and says Salt Edge handles first-line support and communication with TPPs. Its TPP Verification component checks a provider's PSD2 role, the issuer of its eIDAS or Open Banking certificate, its passporting permissions and whether the certificate has been revoked. The toolkit includes a Mobile SCA app that Salt Edge says meets the SCA and dynamic linking requirements, and consent management is listed among its functions.

Salt Edge offers help to a bank that applies for the fallback exemption, and the decision stays with the authority. Its dashboards monitor the TPP environment and the bank's side of the service, so have the contract say who compiles the statistics the bank publishes.

The Streaming API is a separate add-on product, which Mambu documents as not enabled on standard packages. Client systems subscribe to topics built from the bank's event notification templates and commit a cursor as they read, so a consumer resumes where it stopped after an interruption. Mambu's user guide describes the stream as pull-based with at-least-once delivery, which means consuming systems have to handle duplicates. Get the add-on's price in the quote and ask whether Salt Edge consent and TPP activity appears in the stream.

Which open banking route should an EU bank choose?

We crown Temenos for an EU bank choosing its open-banking route, because the access module is the core vendor's own current product and the product page names the control a customer uses, the consent dashboard. The Berlin Group and UK schemes are named on the same page, and authorization runs inside the vendor's own digital channel. Temenos's older factsheet puts certificate checks at the bank's gateway and ties the role check to a directory the bank subscribes to, so who operates each piece in your deployment has to be scoped before you sign. The two Salt Edge routes list a TPP portal or test facility inside a packaged service. We still weigh the native consent controls above the partner-service routes for this buyer, because consent is what PSD2 builds third-party access on and the customer-facing control is documented by the vendor that supplies the core. Request each route's charges and operating responsibilities in the quoted scope.

A bank that runs Essence or Equation and intends to keep it should take the Finastra route. The Salt Edge app is listed for those two cores with the TPP portal, verification API, test and live environments and consent SDK in one package, and the listing puts a go-live estimate beside it.

Mambu is the pick for a bank choosing a SaaS core that wants the open-banking service operated for it. Its partner page has Salt Edge supplying monitoring, maintenance, updates and first-line support along with the components, so those operating tasks are named as the partner's in the vendor's own description. Budget the Streaming API separately if your other systems need Mambu events.

Other financial services software providers