Most of ConsentWise’s content is written for developers testing Open Banking integrations. This one is for the other side of that arrangement: the people whose real bank accounts make that testing possible. If you’ve come across the Join Us page and wondered what actually happens if you sign up, this explains it.
ConsentWise welcomes anyone with a UK bank account who’s willing to use it to help fintechs and developers test their Open Banking applications and services, in exchange for secondary income. Practically, that means: when a developer needs to test how their app reads account data or initiates a payment, they use your account to run that test, with your consent, through the same consent process any real Open Banking connection uses.
This is the question most people ask first, and it’s a reasonable one. The short answer: Open Banking, by design, never requires you to hand your banking credentials to a third party. When you consent to a developer testing against your account, the process happens through your own bank’s login and authentication screen, the same screen you’d use to check your balance normally. The developer’s app never sees your password or your bank login details. What it gets is scoped access, limited to what you’ve explicitly consented to (reading account information, or initiating a specific payment), and only for as long as that consent is valid.
You can typically see and revoke that consent through your own bank’s app or online banking, exactly as you could revoke access for any other Open Banking connection you’d set up yourself.
ConsentWise connects developers who need real bank accounts to test against with Agents willing to make theirs available for that purpose. It doesn’t ask for or store your banking credentials, since the consent journey itself never requires that. It’s worth being clear-eyed about this before joining: you’re agreeing to go through real consent flows for real testing, not a passive or purely automated arrangement.
If this sounds like something you’d want to do, the Join Us page is the starting point, and the best next step is to get in touch directly with any questions about how the arrangement works before committing, including what’s expected of you and how compensation works in practice.
Will a developer ever see my bank password or login details? No. Open Banking consent works through your own bank’s authentication screen, not through sharing credentials with any third party. This is a core part of how the regulation is designed, not a ConsentWise-specific promise.
Can I say no to a specific testing request? Consent is given per request through your bank’s own consent screen, and you can decline or revoke it there, the same way you would for any Open Banking connection.
Do I need any technical knowledge to become an Agent? No. You need a UK bank account and a willingness to go through the same consent screens you’d already see using any Open Banking-connected app.
How much can I expect to earn? ConsentWise describes this as secondary income for the account holder rather than a fixed rate, since it depends on how often your account is used for testing. Contact ConsentWise directly for specifics before signing up.