The Next Generation of Open Banking: Meet Sarah Kok, CMO at Enabling Banking
TL;DR
In our latest employee spotlight, Sarah Kok reveals:
Sarah’s fascination with transactional data and its potential to unlock insights has driven her career, leading her to her current role as CMO of Enable Banking.
Enable Banking’s unique approach to Open Banking aims to enable clients by providing the infrastructure needed for their success without competing with them.
The evolving role of Open Banking is now extending beyond financial services to sectors like retail, insurance, and healthcare.
When I first started working in fintech, it was like stepping into an ever-changing puzzle—complex, exciting, and packed with potential. But that’s what drew me in—the thrill of transforming the abstract into something real and impactful. I was part of the first wave of Open Banking, right around the time when PSD2 came into play. We were talking about Open Banking as something shiny and new. It was an era of screen scraping and reverse engineering —tech that, though now considered clunky, laid the groundwork for the digital finance landscape we know today. Back then, I was at a first-gen Open Banking provider (if you’re interested you can look it up 😉). Let me tell you, it was an exhilarating ride.
PSD2 was about to take full effect, and while competition was fierce, the real challenge was how to harness the potential of transactional data. That’s where my fascination began. I wasn’t just watching the industry evolve, I was part of it. I learnt that the true power lay not in the regulations themselves but in what the data could unlock.
Now, as the Chief Marketing Officer of Enable Banking, I find myself in a different—yet equally exciting—position. We’re a second-gen Open Banking provider, and the game has changed in fascinating ways. We work exclusively with APIs, offering a transparent, ethical approach to data access. The days of questionable tech are gone. Today, it’s all about transparency, trust, and enabling others to create incredible products.
But enough about the tech for now. Let's dive into what brought me here, what keeps me passionate, and where I think the future is headed.
The Move to Enable Banking: More Than Just a Career Shift
I joined Enable Banking for two big reasons: the tech, of course, and the people. After years of working with transactional data, I knew I wanted to stay in this space. You can do fascinating things with the data. There are so many tools and ways to make people’s lives better. The insights and opportunities for personalisation are endless.
But more than that, when I met Joonas and Sarah, part of the leadership at Enable, I felt an instant connection. Their vision for a collaborative, open culture where everyone’s ideas are celebrated was something I wanted to be a part of.
We have a saying at Enable Banking: "We're not trying to be the next Klarna; we're enabling the next ten Klarnas." That philosophy hooked me. Instead of competing with our customers, we focus on being the invisible engine behind their success. We want to empower others to innovate without creating fear we’ll step into their space.
Now I have been here for a few months I can say If there’s one thing I love about Enable Banking, it’s how agile we are. Every Monday, we sit down as a team and reassess our priorities for the week. If something urgent pops up—whether it’s a market shift or a customer need—we adapt. We don’t get stuck in long-winded strategies that take months to execute. That’s how we stay ahead.
First-Gen vs. Second-Gen Open Banking: What’s the Difference?
When I started working in this space in 2018, Open Banking was beginning to gain momentum. But we were clearly standing on the edge of a transformation we couldn't yet fully understand.
We worked with the tools we had (prior to the banks’ own APIs) to help banks responsibly access consumers' financial data. It was groundbreaking but somewhat messy. Today, second-generation Open Banking is all about connecting to the banks’ own APIs, meaning transparent, API-driven, and fully PSD2-compliant.
We owe a lot to the first-generation open-banking pioneers who kick-started the movement toward a more open economy. This bold approach pushed both the industry and regulators to catch up and led to the creation of PSD2 APIs.
In Finland, where screen scraping has been illegal since 2018, second-generation providers like Enable Banking have been fully focused on PSD2-compliant APIs to fetch data. This has given Enable Banking an edge—they’ve been working with these APIs right from the start. Now, as the industry matures and more players make the shift to PSD2, we’ve seen the transition away from screen scraping pick-up speed.
Open banking has evolved, but the underlying concept remains the same. It’s about empowering consumers to take control of their financial data. We’re not just cobbling together solutions anymore. We’re building a scalable, resilient infrastructure that futureproofs the financial services industry.
Challenges and Learnings: A Never-Ending Education
I’ve been in fintech for what feels like forever now. But every day, I learn something new. Whether it’s the nuances of our tech, new use cases of Open Banking, the changing needs of our customers, or how to better time a social media post (trust me, there’s a science to it). All of these everyday opportunities and challenges keep me on my toes.
The biggest challenge? Getting people to understand just how powerful Open Banking can be. It’s not just for financial services anymore. Retail, healthcare, and even logistics can benefit from better data access. But bridging that knowledge gap isn’t always easy, especially for industries that are still getting used to the idea of data-sharing. Educating the market is a key part of what I do.
The Fun Part: Fintech and the Future
There’s so much happening in fintech right now that it’s hard to choose what excites me the most. Embedded finance is huge. Seeing financial services integrated into non-financial platforms blows my mind. Suddenly, my favourite retail app can also be my bank, and everything becomes easier.
I’m also intrigued by the possibilities of AI and machine learning (henceforth ML), especially in credit risk. Could AI and ML help to reduce some of the bias that exists in the financial world today, or will it just exacerbate the problem? I like to imagine a world where small businesses, which might not fit the traditional bank mould, can better access financing because AI assesses them more fairly. It’s not just about tech for tech’s sake. It’s about making finance more inclusive and ethical.
Advice for Aspiring Fintechers
If you’re considering a career shift into Open Banking or fintech, my advice is to do it! The field is evolving so fast and there’s room for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re a techie, a marketer, or something in between. The trick is to stay curious and never stop learning. The more you understand how things work—from the tech to the consumer behaviour behind it—the more valuable you’ll be.
And don’t be afraid to dream a little. Sure, I have “big ideas” about how fintech can create a fairer, more inclusive financial system. But it’s not naive to dream. It’s how we innovate. It’s how we make things better.
As Open Banking transforms, the opportunities ahead are vast. They’re driven by smarter tech and even sharper minds. The journey has been rewarding, but it's the people and partnerships that will continue shaping the future.