The UK government has launched a procurement process to secure an open banking technology supplier to support its Universal Credit (UC) programme. The move follows a trial conducted by the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) late last year, which allowed claimants to securely share their bank balance and transaction history online.
The DWP is now seeking a provider that can scale this functionality, enabling Universal Credit recipients to share data across all their bank accounts and verify ownership. This would streamline financial assessments and potentially reduce fraud, while offering claimants a faster and more efficient application process.
The government has signalled that additional open banking applications could follow, so the chosen supplier must have the capacity to expand services beyond the initial use case.
The procurement is being conducted through the ‘Open Banking Dynamic Purchasing System’ managed by the Crown Commercial Service, as first reported by Global Government Fintech. This framework allows public sector bodies to access pre-approved fintech services and is intended to speed up the procurement process for emerging financial technologies.
The development marks another step in the government’s broader digital transformation agenda, leveraging fintech tools to improve service delivery and financial inclusion.