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What this piece is

A founder’s reflection on the regulatory convergence that reshaped the identity and open banking landscape. PSD2 opened access to bank data. GDPR gave consumers control over their personal information. Together they created a “perfect storm” that made bank-verified identity a viable and valuable product category. Originally published on Medium, February 2021. Originally written circa 2017.

What is the core idea?

Two regulatory forces — PSD2 and Open Banking mandating third-party access to bank data, and GDPR giving consumers data rights — converged to create commercial opportunity for identity products built on bank data. DirectID pivoted from a consumer product (miiCard) to a B2B service leveraging bank data for identity verification, reducing onboarding time, reducing fraud, and enabling same-day decisions for lenders.