Open banking allows you to share financial information from your bank accounts with financial services or other providers. In this case, it will operate by you giving one time consent to a firm regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland to access your bank accounts and securely provide transaction history to Bluestone.

This process will give our Underwriting team secure access to your income data, directly from your bank account – simplifying the application requirements for you and helping us to provide you with a speedy decision.

The service is provided in partnership with CRIF Realtime Ireland Ltd, a Central Bank of Ireland authorised Account Information Service Provider (AISP). An authorised AISP can ask for permission to access bank account data and use information to provide a service.

The process is simple:

• The Bluestone team will send you an Open Banking link
• Click on the link > Select your bank > Tick the consent box
• You will be securely redirected to your bank to authenticate

Once you compete the three steps above, CRIF will use technology known as API to access your bank account(s) and transfer transaction data to Bluestone. This process is completely secure, data shared is encrypted, and your consent gives CRIF and Bluestone one time only access to your financial information.

The information provided is a list of your bank account transactions, categorised into income and expenditure.

When you apply for financing from Bluestone our Underwriters have to assess whether you will be in a position to meet your repayments and whether it will be affordable for you. We do this by looking at your regular income and expenses, including by reviewing bank statements.

Open banking allows us to complete this review more quickly and thoroughly without the need for you to provide us with bank statements. It is more convenient for you and will mean we can make a more speedy decision.

Yes, you can withdraw your consent to open banking at any time. However, Bluestone will only access your bank account information once, when you apply for credit, therefore unless you withdraw consent immediately after you give it we will already have acted on your consent. If we approve your application we are required to keep the transaction information to comply with regulatory requirements.

Yes, the technology used by CRIF and Bluestone is tested and secure. CRIF is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland to provide data to Bluestone and therefore it has to comply with very high standards in the way it does this. Both CRIF and Bluestone must comply with data protection requirements in how they access, process and store your personal data.