FinTech & Open Banking
Designer
Russell Webb
Published
26 Jan 2026
Reading time
12 min
Redefining Open Banking Consent Management
Turn regulatory complexity into a simple, human-centred experience, showing strategic thinking on an enterprise platform.
01____
The Challenge & Strategic Opportunity
The Context
Ambiguity
Focus
Goal: Implement the Account Information Service Provider (AISP) flow for Open Banking on a desktop environment to provide users with aggregated financial insights.
The Problem: Open Banking consent (especially consent duration, renewal, and revocation) is inherently complex and intimidating for users, leading to high drop-off rates and potential regulatory fines.
Strategic Opportunity: Design a Consent Management Dashboard that not only meets legal requirements (e.g., PSD2, CMA) but also builds trust—a key differentiator in financial services—by making the flow transparent and effortless.
Business & User Goals
Rate
Confidence
Business Success Metric: Increase the rate of successful, sustained consent completion (reducing drop-off post-bank redirection).
User Success Metric: Allow users to manage their third-party connections with confidence and clarity (measured via System Usability Scale/SUS).
2025
16M active Open Banking users
Up from 10M six months ago
02____
Prototyping & Flow Design
Prototypes to demonstrate clear functionality
Data
Just-in-Time
Consent
Design to steer strategy and make complexity feel simple.
The Core Flow
Selecting & Confirming Account
- Design Focus: How to clearly explain what data is being shared and for how long before the user is redirected to their bank.
- Prototype Technique: A clickable mid-fidelity prototype used to test the clarity of the pre-consent screen, specifically the messaging around account selection (e.g., allowing multi-account selection vs. single-account).
- Key Decision:* Introduced a concise, step-by-step modal summarising the flow, using a “Just-in-Time” disclosure model to manage information overload.
The Consent Management Dashboard
Selecting & Confirming Account
- Design Solution: A clear, sectioned dashboard to manage connections (demonstrating systems thinking).
- Active Consents List: Designed a clean card/row view for currently active connections.
- Key Information on Card: Recipient (AISP Name), Account Connected, Days Remaining (e.g., 87 Days), Data Shared.
- Inactive/Expired Consents List (>90 and < 90 days):
03____
Revocation & Critical Error Handling
High Standard of Craft
This addresses the need for high craft and attention to detail in critical flows.
Revoking Permission (The Off-Ramp)
3.1
Design Focus
Making revocation frictionless but requiring clear confirmation (avoiding accidental disconnects).
3.2
Solution
A two-step confirmation modal when a user clicks “Revoke Permission.” The modal clearly restates the consequences (e.g., “You will lose access to X, Y, Z insights. Do you wish to continue?”).
3.3
Prototyping
Used a micro-interaction prototype to test the speed and visual feedback of the successful revocation state.
Error Handling & Resilience:
3.4
Design Focus
Addressing common integration failures (e.g., bank connection timeout, token expiry).
3.5
Solution
Designed specific error states that are human-centred and actionable:
- Instead of “Error Code 404,” use: “Connection Lost: Your bank session has expired. Please click here to re-authorize the connection.”
- Included a fallback mechanism on the dashboard to clearly mark a connection as “Action Required” if an intermittent error occurs.
1 in 3
33% UK adults
Use services powered by Open Banking
04____
Measurable Outcomes & Storytelling
Impact
Ambiguity
Focus
This is where you demonstrate measurable user and business impact and your ability to be a strong storyteller.
Outcomes and Impact
Result 1 (Business)
A/B tested the new Consent Flow vs. the legacy flow, resulting in a 15% reduction in initial flow abandonment (post-account selection, pre-bank redirection).
Result 2 (User)
SUS scores for the Consent Management Dashboard increased by 20 points, indicating a significant improvement in perceived simplicity.
Result 3 (Efficiency)
Reduced support tickets related to “connection management” by X% due to clearer dashboard controls and error messaging.
Reflection (Narrative)
Conclusion
The project proved that prioritising transparency and control in regulatory design is the highest leverage move. The focus on clear separation of active/inactive, <90/>90 day consents, and explicit error states transformed a legal requirement into a trust-building feature.
145 TPPs*
400 agents active in the UK market
*Third-Party Providers
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