Open Banking Surpasses 1 Billion Payments: The Shift From Experiment to Essential UK Infrastructure
Open Banking Limited has confirmed that the UK’s CMA9 banks have processed over 1 billion Open Banking payments and 100 billion API calls since launch, with June 2026 setting a new monthly record. That is not the profile of an emerging technology. It is the profile of infrastructure.
Open Banking Limited has confirmed that more than 1 billion Open Banking payments and 100 billion API calls have now been recorded across the UK’s nine largest banks (the CMA9) since launch, with a new monthly record of 2.81 billion API calls set in June 2026 alone. Open Banking is no longer an emerging technology merchants might cautiously trial. At this scale, it is a core, proven part of UK payments infrastructure, and Pay by Bank is the consumer-facing product built on top of it.
The Headline Numbers
Three figures, reported across the industry this year, mark a genuine turning point for Open Banking in the UK.
Both milestones were confirmed by Open Banking Limited, the body overseeing the UK’s Open Banking ecosystem, on 30 July 2026, covering the CMA9, the UK’s nine largest banks and building societies. June 2026 alone added 40.16 million payments to that total, which works out to around 15 payments initiated every second, with API traffic reaching its highest monthly level on record, and user connections stood at 18.81 million overall.
Scale changes the conversation. A technology used by a few hundred thousand early adopters invites caution. A technology carrying over a billion payments and tens of millions of user connections invites a different question: not “is this proven?” but “why haven’t we adopted it yet?”
The June 2026 snapshot behind these milestones also shows where the growth is actually coming from, which is a more useful signal than the headline totals alone.
| June 2026 metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total API calls | 2.81 billion, a new monthly record |
| Total payments | 40.16 million |
| Single Domestic Payments | 32.43 million |
| Sweeping Variable Recurring Payments | 7.73 million |
| User connections (total, as of June 2026) | 18.81 million |
| Average response time | 349ms |
These totals are easier to grasp when broken down into everyday terms. That 2.81 billion API calls works out to roughly 1,080 requests answered every second, all day, every day, for 30 days straight. The 40.16 million payments work out to around 15 payments initiated every single second across the CMA9, and a response time of 349ms means each one is confirmed in about as long as it takes to blink twice.
The real story is acceleration, not just size. Spread evenly across the eight years since Open Banking launched in 2018, the billion-payment total works out to roughly 342,000 payments a day on average. June 2026 alone ran at close to four times that historic daily rate, at 1.34 million payments a day. The milestone is not just that Open Banking got big. It is that it is currently growing far faster than its own history.
Sweeping Variable Recurring Payments, the newer, more automated way of paying, stand out within that mix as a growing part of how the ecosystem is used, alongside the more familiar single domestic payment.
“These milestones reinforce the UK’s position as a global leader in Open Banking and demonstrate an ecosystem that continues to scale in both volume and capability.”
— Henk Van Hulle, CEO, Open Banking Limited
From Emerging Technology to Infrastructure
It is worth remembering how young this category still is. Open Banking in the UK exists because the Competition and Markets Authority forced the country’s largest banks to open up account access to regulated third parties, starting in 2018. For its first few years, it behaved exactly like a regulatory experiment: limited use cases, cautious adoption, and a widespread wait-and-see approach among merchants.
The billion-payment milestone marks the point where that caution stops being justified by the data. Infrastructure is defined less by how a technology works and more by how routinely people rely on it without thinking about it. Faster Payments, card networks, and Direct Debit all crossed that line decades ago. Open Banking’s numbers now put it on a comparable trajectory, not a hypothetical one.
“Nobody asks whether card payments are ‘proven’ anymore. At a billion payments processed and 18.81 million total user connections, that question is closer to answered than open.”
Why Established Banks Are Still Investing
The clearest evidence that this is not a passing trend is what the UK’s largest, most conservative financial institutions are doing with their own money. Major banking groups have continued to announce multi-billion-pound investment programmes in digital banking, AI, and smart wallet technology, precisely the infrastructure that Open Banking and account-to-account payments depend on.
Banks do not commit capital at that scale to categories they expect to shrink. Investment of this size is a bet that digital, account-native payment experiences, the same experience Pay by Bank offers at checkout, are where customer behaviour is heading, not a bet on a niche feature.
Retail banks typically move cautiously and only commit capital once a shift is well established, not while it is still speculative. Their continued investment in this direction, alongside the adoption figures above, points to the same conclusion from two independent angles: usage data and institutional money.
What This Means for Merchants Deciding Whether to Adopt Now
For a business still weighing up Pay by Bank against sticking with cards, the practical question this milestone answers is simple: is the rail mature enough to build a business on?
You are not the early adopter anymore
With 18.81 million user connections recorded in total by June 2026, offering Pay by Bank is no longer asking your customers to try something unfamiliar. Many of them already use Open Banking elsewhere.
The infrastructure has been proven at scale
A billion payments and 100 billion API calls reflect real-world usage, not a controlled test. The rails underneath Pay by Bank have handled volume most new payment technologies never see.
Waiting has a cost, not just adopting
Every quarter a merchant delays is a quarter of card fees paid on volume that could have moved to a cheaper, faster rail already used by a growing share of their own customers.
None of this changes what Pay by Bank already offered on its own merits: lower fees, instant settlement, and no card machine to fund. What the billion-payment milestone adds is the answer to the one objection those merits alone could not settle, whether enough of the country is actually using it yet. At this scale, that question is no longer open.
SSV SmartPay runs on this same infrastructure. Every SSV SmartPay payment is an Open Banking payment, built on the same rails behind these numbers, with a flat 20p per transaction under £50 and a 0.5% transaction cost above it, no monthly fee, and settlement in seconds.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Open Banking payments has the UK processed?
According to Open Banking Limited, more than 1 billion Open Banking payments have been initiated through the UK’s major high street banks (the CMA9) since launch, alongside more than 100 billion API calls, as of the milestone announced on 30 July 2026. June 2026 alone recorded 40.16 million payments and a record 2.81 billion API calls.
Is Open Banking still an emerging technology?
Not by the numbers. Open Banking Limited reports 18.81 million total user connections as of June 2026, alongside a record 2.81 billion API calls that month, on infrastructure that has processed over 1 billion payments since launch. That is the profile of established infrastructure, not an experimental option.
What does this milestone mean for merchants?
It removes the main hesitation merchants have historically had about Pay by Bank: whether the rail is mature and reliable enough to build a business on. At this scale, adopting Pay by Bank means using infrastructure many millions of UK customers already use regularly, not betting on an unproven technology.
Does SSV SmartPay use this same Open Banking infrastructure?
Yes. Every SSV SmartPay payment runs on Open Banking, the same infrastructure behind these milestone figures. A customer scans a QR code or taps a payment link, approves the payment in their own banking app, and the money settles in seconds, on a rail that has now processed over 1 billion payments across the UK’s largest banks, with a flat 20p per transaction under £50 and a 0.5% transaction cost above it, and no monthly fee.
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References
- Open Banking Limited, “Open Banking surpasses one billion payments and 100 billion API calls,” press release, 30 July 2026.
Important information
Source data. The Open Banking payment, API call, and June 2026 performance figures in this article are from Open Banking Limited’s press release of 30 July 2026, “Open Banking surpasses one billion payments and 100 billion API calls,” and cover the CMA9 (the UK’s nine largest banks and building societies). Confirm the release is still current before publishing, as figures are updated in subsequent reporting periods.
Bank investment figures. References to specific bank investment programmes are described generally in this article. Confirm exact amounts, banks, and dates against the relevant bank’s own announcements before publishing anything more specific.
Not financial advice. This article is general commentary on UK payments industry trends and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice.
SSV SmartPay terms. Full pricing, terms, and conditions are available at ssvsmartpay.co/our-pricing. SSV SmartPay Limited is registered in England and Wales (CRN 15424021). SSV SmartPay is not directly FCA-regulated; payment initiation services are provided by FCA-authorised Payment Institution partners.
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Start free trial Book a demo Or get in touch with the team →Frequently Asked Questions
How many Open Banking payments has the UK processed?
According to Open Banking Limited, more than 1 billion Open Banking payments have been initiated through the UK's major high street banks (the CMA9) since launch, alongside more than 100 billion API calls, as of the milestone announced on 30 July 2026. June 2026 alone recorded 40.16 million payments and a record 2.81 billion API calls.
Is Open Banking still an emerging technology?
Not by the numbers. Open Banking Limited reports 18.81 million total user connections as of June 2026, alongside a record 2.81 billion API calls that month, on infrastructure that has processed over 1 billion payments since launch. That is the profile of established infrastructure, not an experimental option.
What does this milestone mean for merchants?
It removes the main hesitation merchants have historically had about Pay by Bank: whether the rail is mature and reliable enough to build a business on. At this scale, adopting Pay by Bank means using infrastructure many millions of UK customers already use regularly, not betting on an unproven technology.
Does SSV SmartPay use this same Open Banking infrastructure?
Yes. Every SSV SmartPay payment runs on Open Banking, the same infrastructure behind these milestone figures. A customer scans a QR code or taps a payment link, approves the payment in their own banking app, and the money settles in seconds, on a rail that has now processed over 1 billion payments across the UK's largest banks, with a flat 20p per transaction under £50 and a 0.5% transaction cost above it, and no monthly fee.
