Open Banking Has Lost Its Buzz and Become Core Banking Technology | Salt Edge at Money20/20 Europe 2026

Quick Summary

At Money20/20 Europe 2026, Garri Galanter, CEO of Salt Edge, describes a market in which open banking has stopped being a talking point and started being infrastructure. Salt Edge works on both sides of it, supplying the open banking channels institutions need in order to be compliant and consuming the APIs of institutions that already are. With adoption rising sharply, Galanter sees the opening now for banks and fintechs alike.

What makes Salt Edge different from other open banking providers?

Salt Edge is best known for its work in open banking and open finance, and Galanter puts its difference down to covering both sides of the coin. On one side, the company provides open banking channels for institutions that need to be compliant. On the other, it consumes the open banking APIs of institutions that are already compliant, whether or not those institutions sit inside the same participant network. Most providers do one or the other.

Where is open banking heading?

The buzz has gone, and Galanter treats that as a sign of maturity rather than decline: open banking now sits among the core technologies of banking instead of being a novelty. The more important development is adoption, which he says has increased significantly. That gives banks and fintechs more to build on and customers better service, with opportunities emerging from regulation that was previously unknown or poorly understood.

FF NEWS TAKE:

Boring is the goal. A technology only becomes infrastructure once people stop holding conferences about it, and open banking is close to that point in Europe. The two-sided position is the part worth watching: providers that only sell compliance are selling a cost, while providers that also consume the resulting APIs are selling a product. As open finance widens the data set, that distinction is likely to decide who keeps growing.