Open Banking data in insurance underwriting

By Michał Łukasik - CEO, Kontomatik

The emergence of Open Banking, accelerated in Europe by PSD2, has already made real-time financial data accessible - securely and with explicit customer consent. In many European markets, lenders and fintechs leverage transactional data to assess creditworthiness, detect fraud, and personalize financial products. While the regulatory framework already permits access to account data, insurers have so far been cautious in incorporating Open Banking insights into underwriting practices. The technological capability exists, adjacent industries are extracting measurable value, but insurance underwriting continues to rely predominantly on static declarations, historical datasets and outdated processes. For forward-looking insurers, this gap may represent not a constraint, but an untapped competitive opportunity.

Unlike traditional financial indicators, Open Banking data offers dynamic insight into income stability, spending behavior, debt exposure, and cash-flow volatility. For insurers, this represents a shift from static profiling to behavioral risk assessment. Instead of asking applicants to declare their income or employment status, insurers can verify patterns of recurring salary payments, identify seasonal fluctuations, and assess financial resilience more accurately.

In life and wealth insurance, access to transactional data can improve lapse risk prediction. Stable income streams and disciplined financial behavior may correlate with more consistent payments. In SME insurance, cash-flow analytics provide underwriters with a more granular understanding of business continuity risk, particularly for those who may lack traditional financial documentation.

Open Banking also strengthens fraud detection. Inconsistencies between declared information and verified transaction data can be flagged automatically, streamlining underwriting while reducing manual review costs. Combined with AI-driven predictive models, financial transaction data becomes a powerful input for real-time decision-making.

As embedded insurance models expand and underwriting becomes increasingly automated, access to real-time financial intelligence will enable insurers to design more personalized, flexible, and inclusive products. The ability to analyze customer behavior can contribute to the creation of modular insurance solutions, strictly tailored to the customers’ needs and modified with their active participation. In a data-driven insurance landscape, the competitive advantage will belong to those who can transform transactional data into actionable risk insights - responsibly and transparently.