Banks’ attitude to partnership as an antecedent of Open Banking platforms: structural determinants and effects on performance in the Italian context

The recent developments in regulation, in particular PSD2 and ICT technologies, are fostering the Open Banking phenomenon, a model of forced or voluntary collaboration based on the sharing of data and applications between subjects not necessarily affiliated, in order to develop, produce and distribute innovative and value-added financial products and services for the customer. Open Banking is still in its early stages, and the approach with which banks decide to interpret and adapt to the new PSD2 regulations is crucial to grasp the evolution of the structure and operativity of the financial system in the coming years, as well as the role that banks will play in it. Indeed, a positive banks’ attitude to partnership is a crucial factor for developing Open Banking ecosystems and platforms and deserves the attention of researchers. In this paper, we investigate the attitude to partnership of a sample of 45 Italian banks, which allows us to better understand whether there exist conditions for creating Open Banking ecosystems. Furthermore, we explore the economic determinants of banks’ attitudes to partnership and its effect on performance. Results reveal a low current attitude to partnership of Italian banks, a factor that may hinder the formation of Open Banking ecosystems and platforms. The attitude to partnership tends to be low for larger and more capitalised banks, while the opposite occurs for smaller and less capitalised banks, which can be more inclined to participate in Open Banking platforms to compensate for possible constraints in size, resources and human capital. Overall, participation in Open Banking platforms can be justified by the positive effect of attitude to partnership on banks’ performance, as shown by our analysis.