FAQs: Open Banking – Canopy

What is Open Banking?

Open Banking was rolled out in Jan 2018. It allows you to manage the financial data your bank or building society generates from your bank account. You can use Open Banking to authorise your bank to securely share your financial history with FCA-authorised companies like Canopy.

For more information please see What is Open Banking?

Is Open Banking secure?

Yes, Open Banking is secure.

Open Banking is supported by the CMA (Competitions and Markets Authority) and any provider of Open Banking is required to be authorised by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority).

Canopy use an intermediary, Plaid, to securely access your banking data and keep it secure. Role-based access controls are enforced at each layer of infrastructure. Multi-factor authentication is required for access to Plaid infrastructure. All application and user access logs are stored centrally and monitored.

Why are you asking for my log in details?

We do not ask for your log in details. Open banking will direct you to your banking app or banks website in order for you to log in to authorise the connection. We do NOT see or store this information.

Do I have to provide you with access to Open Banking?

No. You are not required to give us access to Open Banking, it is opt-in only.

Do I need to use Open Banking to verify my income and past rental payments?

No. You can also upload your payslips (3 months) and bank statement (3 months) to help us verify your income and historical rental payments, if you have been renting in the U.K market.

Open Banking is a lot quicker and secure.

For more information please see Verifying Income: PAYE Employee , Verifying Income: Self Employment , Verifying Income: Benefits , Verifying Income: Pension , Verifying Rent Payments

Am I automatically opted in to Open Banking?

No‍. It’s always your choice to use Open Banking.

What is the purpose of Open Banking based verification?

We will use your Open Banking based data to verify your income, historical rental payments and rental affordability (i.e. how much can you afford to spend on rent based on your gross annual income).

What is rental affordability?

Rental affordability indicates how much can you afford to spend on rent based on your gross annual income. The benchmark used by the Letting Agents for Rental affordability is approx 40% of your gross annual income.

How will you use my data?

Canopy aims to become a leader in ethical use of data. We will use data to design the best financial wellness products for Renters.

We will not use your data for personal gain. We will not sell your data.

Whenever, there is a new need or new purpose, we will include that in our notices to you in our app.

You do not appear to be listed on the Open Banking register?

As we use Plaid as our intermediary our authorisation and registration derive from them therefore you will see Plaid listed rather than us.