Learn how you and your clients can benefit from an unparalleled transformation in who can access client data, and how
The Consumer Duty Alliance Technology Forum met on 14 July 2026 for a session on how open finance could open new doors and opportunities for advice firms. The discussion was hosted by Ian McKenna and featured two panellists:
- Maxine O’Hanlon, Chartered APFS, Head of Advice at WPS Advisory Ltd,
- James Cheetham, Chartered MCSI, DipFA, CeMAP, Financial Adviser at True Potential Wealth Management.
The purpose of the session was to explore how open banking and the emerging open finance regime – driven by the Data Use and Access Act 2025 – would reshape the way advisers engage with clients, and to hear from two firms already working in new ways using these technologies.
The first half of the session set out the scale of the change facing the profession. Ian McKenna explained that open finance would extend the open banking mechanism into all forms of finance, giving citizens the right to decide who could access their data and placing a legal duty on providers to share it. The panel discussed why so many advisers remained reluctant to embrace open banking, the risk that firms with ageing client banks could lose the next generation to the banks, and the framing of open finance as either an existential threat to the advice market if ignored or a significant opportunity if adopted.
…one of the reasons that we built this app in the 1st place, because prior to the app, we, as a business, we reviewed our client bank and the average age of our clients was 62.
…a lot of people are saying, well, once this information is widely available, you know, it’s going to threaten our livelihoods. Well, I don’t see it that way. I think once it’s available, if you use it to the full potential, it’s actually going to strengthen relationships with clients. It’s going to protect your future business.
The panel then turned from the nature of the challenge to the practical ways advice firms could respond. The panellists shared how their firms were already using open banking and open finance tools in day-to-day practice, focusing on solutions and recommendations.
The panellists described concrete applications: True Potential’s Impulse Save feature, which lets clients move surplus cash into investments in seconds and which James Cheetham linked to behavioural finance; and WPS Advisory’s Life Stage Money App, which Maxine O’Hanlon explained gathers client data to support automated fact-finding, affordability modelling, intergenerational engagement, and proactive identification of vulnerability through a RAG-rated adviser dashboard. Both panellists encouraged advisers to embrace the technology rather than dismiss it, to explain the benefits clearly to clients, and to judge every opportunity by whether it improves client outcomes.
…has a situation happened in your lifetime that you need additional advice with? So we can be
more proactive with our clients rather than reactive. If we’re reactive, we can’t help because the moment’s passed.
I think as an adviser, as with any change, the first question that I always ask is, how can this benefit the client? And I think for any adviser, discounting open finance without considering ‘Is this good for the client? How can it improve the outcomes for my client?’ That would be, I would just implore every adviser to ask that question.
