How ROOV obtained its license from the National Bank of Belgium

How did you start applying for the bank license?

When I had the idea of creating a financial administration app a few years ago, PSD2 didn't exist. Because this directive was issued in 2018, we immediately started thinking about what the possibilities were for our own application. One of the conditions is the procedure imposed by the National Bank.

We started with an exploratory meeting at the National Bank to get some initial advice. What do you need to do to obtain a license, what are the procedures to follow, what timeframes should we foresee for this, the impact on IT,....

Afterwards, we immediately started working and contacted 2 external parties. We finally chose to work with a party that has experience in obtaining such a license. A necessary expertise.

Drafting is a very intense work, drafting the file requires time, legal knowledge,.... What it's mainly about is risk control, data protection, privacy, GDPR,... What are the procedures if something would go wrong, what is decided in management meetings, board of directors,...

What difficulties did you face?

I certainly think it is positive that rules are being imposed to obtain the Account Information Service Provider license. After all, you are dealing with very sensitive information. It is therefore our task and obligation to ensure that the user's data is handled in a way that is as safe as possible and consistent with privacy. In this way, no misuse can be made of all the data that is collected. 

What do you think of the strict regulations?

I certainly think it is positive that very strict rules are imposed to obtain the Account Information Service Provider license. After all you are dealing with very sensitive information. It is therefore our task and obligation to ensure that the user's data is handled in a way that is as safe as possible and privacy conform. This way, no abuse can be made of all the data that is collected.

What added value does the bank license offer the user?

For us, it is one of the most important features we have put in the application. For the following reasons:

• Ease of use: you hardly have to do anything anymore. You take a picture of your invoice and check directly from your bank account whether it has already been paid. 
• The app is also going to start putting things you don't have an invoice for into an analysis model, giving you a complete overview of all your transactions. 
• You get a statement not of one, but all your bank accounts.
• All your accounts centralized in 1 place. 
• ROOV is completely independent.
• It is fully automated, anonymous and secure.