Digital bank statements via PSD2

Why PSD2?

Innovation can be driven by new laws and regulations. This is how the Payment Service Directive 2 (PSD2) two new payment services possible for consumers: payment initiation and account information services. This allows consumers to use certain services when they give permission to a third party to make a payment for them or to provide insight into their bank transactions. Consider, for example, the automatic checkout at the supermarket as soon as you leave the building (and you have scanned your groceries with a self-scanner) or a smart financial service that makes a plan based on your expenses how you could retire earlier.

Within Novum, we have set the goal to learn to what extent a PSD2 link can be applied to improve our services through a Proof of Concept. In this article we would like to share our experiences with you.

Possible value for the AIO application process

A use case where such a PSD2 link could yield value is the application process of the AIO (Supplement for the Elderly Income). Bank transaction statements must be enclosed as an appendix to the application. During the application process, sending out these overviews appears to be one of the biggest bottlenecks, for example because overviews are sent with the wrong time slot, without a balance or because scans are illegible. This creates a longer lead time and provides extra work for both the applicant and the SVB employee. If it turns out that the applicant is entitled to AIO, he / she will also miss out on part of the benefit due to the longer lead time, because the AIO is not paid retroactively. Another advantage of retrieving the digital bank transactions via PSD2 is that an analysis can be carried out automatically to see whether all social services to which the customer may be entitled are already received.

A Proof of Concept in two weeks

Within Novum we use Design Thinking and Lean Start-up methods, whereby we work iteratively in a short time to (in) validate new concepts. During this experiment, the technical validation of a PSD2 link with Rabobank was central, using a test data set. In cooperation with TimeSeries, we set up a backend in Mendix and a working link with Rabobank in two weeks to retrieve the bank transactions from the test data set. We then adjusted the dashboard in this backend for SVB employees in a second two-week sprint so that it is easy to use when assessing the AIO application.

A successful Proof of Concept is the result, in which we have validated and validated a number of predetermined hypotheses.

Next steps

In consultation with SEB, CIO and Legal Affairs, an advisory report has been drawn up on the implementation of PSD2. The functionality will also be tested with AIO rights holders to (in) validate whether they will actually use the functionality and under what conditions.