Open banking: how it changes rental management in Belgium

Open banking explained simply

Open banking is the ability for third-party services to access a user’s bank data, with their consent. This is made possible by the European PSD2 directive (Payment Services Directive 2), in force since 2019.

In practice, a tenant can authorise a rental management tool to view their bank statements, verify their income or initiate a payment directly from their account. All without sharing their banking credentials, via secure APIs.

For rental management, open banking opens three major possibilities: solvency verification of the candidate tenant, automation of rent payments and automatic bank reconciliation for the landlord.

Solvency verification of the candidate tenant

The current process

Today, solvency verification of a candidate tenant relies on documents provided by the candidate: payslips, employment contract, tax assessment. The main risk is falsification: PDF editing tools make it easy to alter a salary amount.

What open banking changes

With the candidate’s consent, open banking allows:

• Verifying actual income: do the account entries match the payslips?
• Analysing regularity: have the income been stable over the last 3-6 months?
• Detecting risks: chronic overdraft, payment incidents, high fixed charges
• Calculating a score: rent/income ratio based on actual cash flows, not declarations

The advantage for the landlord

Verification via open banking is more reliable than document verification. It reduces the risk of unpaid rent upstream, by selecting tenants whose solvency is verified based on actual data.

Automated rent payments

Beyond the standing order

Open banking enables two innovative payment methods for rent:

1. Payment initiation (PIS): the landlord (via their management tool) sends a payment request to the tenant. The tenant validates the payment with one click from their banking app. No need to remember an IBAN or amount.

2. Smart direct debit: the rent is debited automatically, like a direct debit, but with an additional verification layer (sufficient balance, correct amount after indexation).

Payment method comparison

Payment initiation is particularly useful after indexation: the amount is updated automatically, without the tenant needing to modify their standing order.

Automatic bank reconciliation

The current problem

Each month, a landlord managing multiple properties must manually verify that each tenant has paid the correct amount. With 5 properties, it is tedious. With 10, it becomes a source of errors.

The open banking solution

By connecting their bank account to their rental management tool, the landlord benefits from automatic reconciliation:

1. The tool detects incoming transfers
2. It automatically matches them to the corresponding tenant (by amount, reference or IBAN)
3. It generates the receipt automatically
4. It alerts in case of missing or partial payment

This reconciliation saves considerable time and eliminates tracking errors. It is one of the most useful features for landlords managing multiple properties via a rental management tool.

Current limitations and outlook

Barriers to adoption

• Tenant wariness: sharing bank data remains a sensitive act, even with the PSD2 legal framework
• Limited offering: few rental management tools in Belgium fully integrate open banking
• Interoperability: not all Belgian banks offer the same API quality
• Cost: payment service provider (PSP) fees accumulate

What will change

The PSD3 directive (being finalised at European level) and the PSR regulation will strengthen and expand open banking:

• Better standardisation of banking APIs
• Extension to savings accounts and loans
• Strengthened consumer protection
• Obligation for banks to provide free and reliable data access

For landlords, open banking is a gradual evolution that will integrate naturally into rental management tools over the coming years. To understand the other innovations transforming the sector, see our article on open banking and real estate.