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PSD2 and Open Banking: Connect Your Dutch Business Bank Account to Your Financial Tools
How does PSD2 open banking let you connect your Dutch business bank account to bookkeeping software? See AISP vs PISP, PSD3, and setup steps.
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13 mins
Intro
Before open banking, a Dutch entrepreneur exported a CSV or MT940 file from their bank every week and imported it manually into their bookkeeping software. Today, the same entrepreneur's bank transactions appear automatically in real time, invoices get reconciled the moment payment arrives, and the BTW return can be prepared in minutes rather than hours. Open banking, built on the EU's PSD2 framework, made this possible, and most Dutch entrepreneurs are already using it every day without knowing the regulatory name behind it.
This article explains what that connection actually is, the two very different types of bank link Dutch software can use, why some entrepreneurs see their bank import mysteriously stop every three months, and what changes once everything is properly connected. It also covers where the underlying law stands right now, since a genuinely significant regulatory update, PSD3 and its accompanying PSR, is moving through its final stages in 2026 without yet being fully in force.
What Open Banking and PSD2 Actually Are, and Why You Are Probably Already Using Them
Open banking is the principle that your bank account data belongs to you, not your bank, and that you can authorise third parties, bookkeeping software, payment platforms, financial dashboards, to access that data on your behalf. PSD2, the EU's second Payment Services Directive, made this legally enforceable from 2019 onward. It required every qualifying bank in the EU to open its payment account data to authorised third-party providers, TPPs, whenever the account holder gives explicit consent. In practice, the most visible result for a Dutch entrepreneur is the bankkoppeling: the automatic connection between a business bank account and bookkeeping software that imports transactions without any manual file handling at all.
Key takeaway: If your bookkeeping software automatically shows your latest bank transactions without you uploading anything, you are already using open banking. The PSD2 koppeling running quietly in the background is what makes that connection possible, and most Dutch entrepreneurs use it every day without ever knowing its regulatory name.
Here is where the law actually stands as of mid-2026, and it is worth being precise about this, since a lot of content online gets it wrong. PSD3 and its accompanying PSR (Payment Services Regulation) reached final political agreement between the European Parliament and Council in 2026, with formal compromise texts published in April. That is real, meaningful progress, but PSD2 remains the governing legal framework for Dutch entrepreneurs today. Once PSD3 and the PSR are formally published in the EU's Official Journal, most substantive provisions only take effect roughly 21 months later, which points to full applicability landing sometime around 2027 to 2028, not this year. Dutch banks, software providers, and their documentation will keep calling the connection a "PSD2 koppeling" for some time yet, and that is currently the accurate term, even as the underlying framework prepares for a genuine, if gradual, upgrade. The core principle carries over unchanged either way: you control who accesses your bank data. Understanding how that automated transaction feed then supports the rest of your admin is worth reading alongside automating debtor management, since reconciliation depends on exactly this connection working properly.
The Two Things Open Banking Can Do for Your Business
Open banking access for a Dutch entrepreneur comes in two genuinely different forms, and understanding the distinction clarifies which tools use which type, and what each one can and cannot actually do on your behalf.
Access type | Technical name | What it enables | Requires your consent? | Cost to you? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Account information | AISP (Account Information Service Provider) | Read-only access to transactions, balances, and account details; used by bookkeeping software to import transactions automatically | Yes, explicit consent required | Free; banks cannot charge for this access |
Payment initiation | PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider) | Initiates payments directly from your account via third-party software; used for automated supplier payment runs from inside bookkeeping software | Yes, per-payment or standing consent | Depends on the provider; often included in premium software tiers |
The overwhelming majority of Dutch bookkeeping software integrations use AISP access, simple read-only transaction import. PISP access, payment initiation, is available in more advanced platforms and is genuinely useful for BV founders who process regular supplier payment batches, since it means approving and paying invoices directly from within the accounting software rather than logging into the bank separately for every batch.
Watch out: AISP access gives a third-party provider read-only access to your transaction data; it cannot move money on its own. PISP access can initiate payments, which is a meaningfully higher level of trust to hand over. Always verify that any provider requesting PISP access actually holds a valid payment institution licence from a European financial regulator, in the Netherlands that means DNB, before granting it.
Since this real-time transaction feed also underpins your broader financial picture, not just day-to-day bookkeeping, it is worth seeing how that connects to how to prepare a balance sheet, where up-to-date account data ultimately feeds into the figures you rely on for a clear financial position.
PSD2 Koppeling vs Commerciële Koppeling: Which One Does Your Software Use?
When a Dutch entrepreneur connects their bank account to bookkeeping software, one of two technically different connection types gets used, depending on the bank and the software involved. The difference affects data quality, how often you get logged out and asked to re-authenticate, and which features actually work, and most entrepreneurs have no idea which type they are on until something breaks.
Aspect | PSD2 koppeling (basic) | Commerciële koppeling (bank's own API) |
|---|---|---|
Legal basis | Mandated by PSD2; all qualifying banks must offer it | Voluntary commercial product from the bank, beyond the legal minimum |
Cost to account holder | Free; banks cannot charge | May involve a fee or commercial agreement |
Data quality | Basic transaction data; often lacks detailed merchant info, categories, or pending transactions | Richer data; more transaction detail, pending payments, longer initial history |
Re-authentication | Every 90 days under current PSD2 rules | Bank's own consent framework; often no fixed 90-day limit |
Synchronisation frequency | Varies; typically daily or on demand | Often real-time or near-real-time |
Bank coverage | All qualifying Dutch banks | Only banks that have built a commercial API product |
Examples in the NL market | Available at every major Dutch bank | Rabobank, the first Dutch bank to launch one, in 2022; ABN AMRO's API; ING's direct connection |
Key takeaway: If your bank import stops working every three months and forces you to re-authorise access, you are on a basic PSD2 koppeling and running into its 90-day re-authentication requirement. The fix, for now, is either to re-authorise promptly whenever asked, or to switch to a commercial connection where both your bank and software support one. Once PSD3 and the PSR fully apply, this 90-day friction is expected to ease considerably, though that change is still a year or two away rather than something already in effect.
Getting this distinction right matters most when something is going wrong with an integration, and it is exactly the kind of question worth raising with whoever handles your books; see accountant or bookkeeper for how that professional relationship typically covers this kind of software troubleshooting.
How to Connect Your Dutch Business Bank Account to Bookkeeping Software, Step by Step
The actual connection process is genuinely straightforward, typically taking under five minutes once you have both your bank account and your bookkeeping software open. The steps differ slightly between banks and providers, but the core sequence holds steady across almost all of them.
Open your bookkeeping software and find the bank connection, or "bankkoppeling," section, typically tucked under Settings, Bank, or Administration.
Select your bank from the list of supported banks. Most Dutch platforms support ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank, Knab, Bunq, and the other major Dutch banks; foreign IBAN providers such as Finom, Revolut, or Wise may be listed too, but check whether your specific account type is actually supported before committing to one.
The software redirects you to your bank's own login environment. This is deliberate: your banking credentials are never shared with the software directly. You authenticate with your bank using your usual method, an app, a digipass, or an SMS code.
Review and confirm the consent screen. Your bank shows exactly what data the software is requesting, transactions, balance, account details, for how long, and which accounts are included, and you can typically limit access to specific accounts if several sit under the same banking login.
Once consent is confirmed, you are redirected back to the software and the initial transaction import begins automatically. Depending on the bank and connection type, the first import may cover 30, 60, or 90 days of history.
Set the import frequency in your software settings. Most platforms default to daily import; some support real-time or near-real-time syncing if the bank's connection supports it.
For a basic PSD2 connection, set yourself a calendar reminder for 90 days out. The software will typically show a warning when re-authentication is due, but it does not always notify you proactively before the connection actually breaks.
Once that connection is live, here is what actually changes in day-to-day operations:
Every bank transaction appears automatically in the bookkeeping software, with no manual CSV or MT940 uploads ever again
Invoices get reconciled automatically the moment a matching payment arrives, and debtor management reminder sequences stop without you lifting a finger
The BTW return can be prepared from already-imported, already-categorised transactions, cutting manual input dramatically
Your real-time cash position is always visible without logging into the bank separately just to check the balance
Your bookkeeper or accountant can work from the same live transaction feed without ever requesting a fresh export from you
If PISP is enabled, supplier invoices can be approved and paid directly from inside the software itself
Since the accuracy of that automated BTW figure depends entirely on this connection working properly, when to file VAT covers how that quarterly rhythm benefits from clean, automatically imported data.
Which Dutch Banks Support Open Banking, and What to Check Before You Choose
Every major Dutch bank with enough users is legally required under PSD2 to offer open banking access, which means basic AISP access is available almost universally at this point. What varies considerably, and what is worth actually weighing when choosing a business bank account, is the quality of that connection and whether a richer commercial API sits behind it.
ABN AMRO and ING both offer full PSD2 connections alongside their own commercial API products, and both integrate well with major Dutch bookkeeping platforms; transaction data tends to be rich and synchronisation reliable across the board. Rabobank was the first Dutch bank to launch a commercial open banking API back in 2022, and its integrations across the Dutch software market remain strong, with real-time synchronisation and noticeably richer transaction detail than the basic PSD2 connection alone provides.
Knab and GoDutch both offer standard PSD2 connections with growing integration ecosystems, though coverage in smaller or more specialist bookkeeping platforms can be less complete than what the larger banks offer. Fintech providers issuing non-Dutch IBANs, Finom, Revolut Business, and Wise Business among them, do offer PSD2 connections in principle, but Dutch bookkeeping software coverage for these varies meaningfully by provider; some platforms support them natively, others still require a manual export, so it is worth checking specific compatibility before choosing one primarily for its international payment features. Neno's own business account skips this entire question by design: because the account and the bookkeeping platform are the same product, transactions are available immediately with no separate PSD2 consent flow and no 90-day re-authentication clock running in the background at all.
Watch out: A bank connection listed as "supported" in your bookkeeping software may still be using the basic PSD2 connection rather than the richer commercial API. If transactions are missing detail, synchronisation feels slow, or the connection quietly breaks every 90 days, this is almost always the underlying cause. Ask your software provider directly which connection type applies to your specific bank, and whether a commercial API alternative exists.
Since your choice of NL versus foreign IBAN also affects other payment infrastructure beyond just bookkeeping integrations, iDEAL becoming Wero is worth reading alongside this if you are weighing which account setup fits your business best; and getting invoicing itself set up correctly, so the transactions flowing through this connection actually match your outgoing invoices, is covered in e-invoicing Netherlands.
Get Your Bank Connected Properly, Not Just Technically
A working bank connection and a genuinely useful one are not always the same thing. The basic PSD2 koppeling gets your transactions imported and satisfies the legal minimum, but the 90-day re-authentication cycle and thinner data can quietly cost you hours every quarter compared to a richer commercial connection or a platform where the account and the bookkeeping simply are the same product.
If you want your bank connection set up once, correctly, without the 90-day reset or the missing transaction detail, book a demo and we will show you how that works in practice. If you are earlier in the process of setting up your business, our team can also help you incorporate your BV or get your bookkeeping and payroll running on a connection that does not need re-authorising every three months.
FAQs
What is PSD2 and how does it affect my Dutch business?
PSD2 is the EU directive requiring banks to open payment account data to authorised third parties, such as bookkeeping software, when you give explicit consent. In practice, it is the legal basis for the automatic bank connection that imports your transactions into your accounting software without manual uploads.
Has PSD2 been replaced by PSD3?
Not yet, in practical terms. PSD3 and its accompanying PSR reached final political agreement in 2026, but most substantive provisions only take effect roughly 21 months after formal publication, pointing to full applicability around 2027 to 2028. PSD2 remains the governing framework for now, even as banks and software providers prepare for the upcoming change.
What is the difference between a PSD2 koppeling and a commerciële koppeling?
A PSD2 koppeling is the free, legally mandated basic connection every qualifying bank must offer, with standard data and a 90-day re-authentication requirement. A commerciële koppeling is the bank's own richer, optional API, often with better data quality and no fixed re-authentication limit, though it may come with commercial terms.
Why does my bank import stop working every 90 days?
This is the standard PSD2 requirement for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) re-authorisation on basic account information connections. Your software should prompt you to re-authenticate; if it does not do so proactively, set your own reminder to avoid an unexpected gap in your imported transactions.
Is open banking safe for my business bank account?
Yes. You authenticate directly with your own bank using your usual login method; your credentials are never shared with the third-party software. Access is limited to what you explicitly consent to, and that consent can be reviewed or revoked at any time through your bank's own portal.
Can my bookkeeper access my bank transactions via open banking?
Yes, indirectly. Once your bank account is connected to your bookkeeping software, your bookkeeper or accountant can typically see the same live transaction feed within that software, without needing separate access to your bank account or requesting exports from you directly.
What is the difference between AISP and PISP?
AISP (Account Information Service Provider) access is read-only: it lets software see your transactions and balance but cannot move money. PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider) access can actually initiate payments from your account, which requires a separate licence and a higher level of trust in the provider.
Which Dutch banks support open banking for business accounts?
All major Dutch banks, including ABN AMRO, ING, Rabobank, Knab, Bunq, and GoDutch, offer PSD2 connections. Rabobank, ABN AMRO, and ING additionally offer richer commercial APIs. Fintech providers with foreign IBANs, such as Finom, Revolut, and Wise, offer PSD2 connections too, though Dutch software compatibility varies by provider.
Can I revoke open banking access?
Yes, at any time. Most Dutch banks provide a consent management dashboard where you can view and revoke active third-party connections directly. If you cancel a software subscription or switch providers, revoke the corresponding consent in your bank portal as well, rather than assuming it expires on its own.
Does open banking work with foreign IBAN accounts like Revolut or Wise?
Generally yes, since these providers also offer PSD2 connections, but actual compatibility with specific Dutch bookkeeping software varies. Some platforms support these connections natively; others require manual export instead, so it is worth confirming compatibility before relying on a foreign IBAN account for automated bookkeeping.
Written by
Nick Knuppe
CEO & Founder
