The number of open banking users is expected to more than double in size, to 40 million, by 2021 from 18 million last year, according to a Juniper Research report, as the COVID-19 pandemic is increasing the need for consumers to aggregate financial accounts and gain deeper insight into financial health.

Open banking is a technology that allows bank customers to access data across competing banks or third party financial data on the same platform, according to a press release on the report. For example, open banking could allow a consumer to view account information or access funds from multiple banks using the same platform. 

"Banks must embrace open banking as a chance to capitalize on their ongoing digital transformation journeys and introduce innovative services enabled by open APIs, or risk losing out to more digitally agile competition," Juniper analyst Nick Maynard said in the release. 

The report states payments will be critical to the growth of the industry, and will account for about $9 billion in volume by 2024.