Australian banks have been prodded once again over their apparent complacency and reluctance to embrace innovation - notably a reluctance to consider the opportunities offered by open banking.In the latest instance, the prodding came from Julian Sawyer, co-founder and former chief operating officer of Starling Bank in the UK, who presented and moderated several panels at the 2nd Open Banking Summit in Sydney yesterday.Starling, a mobile-only digital bank that was founded in 2014, attracted much interest among delegates. It has had a rapid rise since 2014, offering current accounts and business banking in the UK, and has recently added a contactless debit Mastercard and personal Euro accounts to its range of products.In one of the panel discussions run by Sawyer, he was asked how, with the Big Four so dominant in Australian market, he saw open banking getting to critical mass?"I had the advantage of being in the UK and seeing how NatWest and Barclays and various other banks approached the challenge," was the response."What became immediately apparent to me was the difference in attitude between the UK and Australia - the willingness [in the UK] to embrace innovation, their willingness to recognise they are in a competitive market."So I welcome neobanks to throw down the gauntlet to the Big Four and say [to the major incumbent banks] if you don't keep up we will steal your market share. "It's the only way we're going to see change"Earlier, Sawyer delivered the day's keynote address where he warned that wresting customers from their big bank incumbents is not a foregone conclusion, with no more than 24 per cent of consumers in the UK aware of open banking, and where Accenture found that just 47 per cent of consumers and 52 per cent of SMEs believe open banking will deliver less control over their financial data.His remedy is for fintechs and emerging start-up banks to lock onto one problem for consumers and provide a better service than currently offered, with one in six customers likely to share data in return for "improved products".He suggested there is room to develop compelling service cases around identity, lending and payments.