NextGenPSD2 is the open-banking API standard published by the Berlin Group, a pan-European payments interoperability initiative, to satisfy the EU's PSD2 access-to-account (XS2A) requirement. It defines a common REST API framework for Account Information Services (AIS), Payment Initiation Services (PIS), and Confirmation of Funds (PIIS), which most continental European banks — and some UK institutions — implement as their PSD2 dedicated interface, secured with OAuth2/OIDC and eIDAS-based certificate authentication.
Berlin Group NextGenPSD2
NextGenPSD2 is the open-banking API framework published by the Berlin Group, the pan-European standardization initiative for payments interoperability. It is the continental counterpart to the UK’s OBIE standard: where OBIE delivered the CMA remedy in Britain, NextGenPSD2 gives most of the rest of Europe a common way to satisfy PSD2’s access-to-account (XS2A) obligation, so a third party can reach a customer’s account across many banks without a bespoke integration per institution.
- The XS2A API family - Account Information Services (AIS), Payment Initiation Services (PIS), and Confirmation of the Availability of Funds (PIIS), described as a REST framework banks implement as their PSD2 “dedicated interface.”
- Certificate-based trust over OAuth2/OIDC - Access is secured with OAuth2/OIDC and eIDAS qualified certificates (QWAC/QSEAL) identifying the third-party provider, rather than the OBIE directory model used in the UK.
- A framework, not a single byte-for-byte contract - Unlike Australia’s CDS or the UK’s conformance-tested spec, NextGenPSD2 is a framework banks profile locally, which is exactly why PSD2 fragmented into national and per-bank “flavors” instead of one uniform surface.
NextGenPSD2 is the standard I reach for to explain why PSD2 produced uneven results across Europe while the UK did not: the same regulation, implemented as a framework each market profiles rather than a single conformance-tested contract, multiplies an industry into flavors. When I score a European or UK bank and find the XS2A framework rather than OBIE Read/Write — Triodos Bank UK is the example in my catalog — it signals a provider on the continental standard, with the interoperability that promises and the local-profile variance that has been PSD2’s persistent tax.
Referenced in API Evangelist papers
This standard shows up in my published research. These reports read the machine-readable evidence provider by provider — and put this standard in the context of a real sector.
The State of UK Banking APIs
The EU alternative to OBIE — Triodos Bank UK runs on the NextGenPSD2 XS2A framework rather than the OBIE Read/Write standard.
Governed by these regulations
A standard is the machine-readable contract; a regulation is the law that requires it. These are the regulations that mandate or drive this standard, catalogued at regulations.apievangelist.com.
Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2)
The directive whose dedicated-interface requirement this XS2A framework satisfies across the EU.
