Bryan Zhang appointed Chair of Strategic Working Group for Open Banking

The PSR and FCA appoint Bryan Zhang as Strategic Working Group Chair to help shape the future development of Open Banking 

The PSR and FCA, as co-chairs of the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee (the committee), have appointed Bryan Zhang as the independent chair of a Strategic Working Group (SWG) to provide industry and stakeholder insight to help shape the future development of Open Banking.  

The committee believes that by working closely with industry and other key stakeholders, there is potential to build on the progress made to date in open banking, to further drive benefits for consumers and businesses, such as more personally tailored financial products, as well as maintaining the UK’s position as a leader in innovation. 

Bryan is the Co-Founder and the Executive Director of the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. His responsibilities as chair of the SWG will include selecting and appointing the SWG members, convening and facilitating SWG meetings, collating stakeholders’ views in response to the committee’s questions and providing regular updates to the committee. Bryan will report, and be directly accountable, to the co-chairs of the committee. 

The SWG is a non-decision-making consultative forum where industry and other stakeholders can share their views and input into the vision and strategic roadmap for further developing Open Banking.  SWG members will be made up of industry representatives, subject matter experts and other stakeholders including consumers and businesses. It will operate from August 2022 until December 2022. 

The committee co-chairs, Chris Hemsley, the CEO of the PSR and Sheldon Mills, the FCA’s Executive Director, Consumers and Competition, commented: "We are excited to appoint Bryan to lead the SWG and look forward to working with him and key stakeholders to help define the vision and strategic roadmap for further developing Open Banking." 

Additionally, the FCA and the PSR, as co-chairs of the committee, have asked the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE) to provide administrative support in onboarding Bryan and ongoing secretariat support to assist Bryan in setting up the SWG. Our communications with the OBIE provide more detail. 

Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee letter to Open Banking Implementation Entity, 24 June
Open Banking Implementation Entity letter to Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee, 5 July
Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee letter to Open Banking Implementation Entity, 1 Aug
Open Banking Implementation Entity letter to Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee, 1 Aug