Prime Minister Mark Carney’s administration did not list the spring budget, which is often used to outline its legislative priorities.
Natacha Boudrias, head of the Open Banking Strategy of National Bank of Canada, said the industry lacks “clearity” about the future forms of consumer-driven banking. She said the spring election could stall on the archives.
“We certainly hope that the government can start working as soon as possible so that we don’t get stuck in the consulting cycle,” she said.
Canadian financial officials said in a media statement that the government remains committed to consumer-driven banking. “The earliest opportunity will introduce the rest of the consumer-driven banking framework to ensure Canadian consumers and businesses can safely benefit from tools that help them reduce costs and improve their financial outcomes,” the statement said.
A Canadian bank is adopting an open banking framework
Instead of waiting for Ottawa, National Bank moved forward with its own open banking framework that enables FinTech (fintech companies to develop applications for Canadians and businesses, both individually plugged into their databases to securely share information when users allow.
The current status of financial data sharing is “screen scratching”, a process that usually sees a single shared bank credential shared with a third party to access the information the app needs to run.
But Boudrias said how much data is shared through screen scratches or there is little control, which is all or nothing, makes it a potential privacy nightmare.
Ideally, open banks narrow down fire data and reduce data, allowing users to control the information they see and how long it can be accessed.
