Canadian tech leaders demand a roadmap for the delivery of an open banking framework

After a three-year investigation into whether Canada should follow the UK’s example in making it easier for people to allow third-party financial service providers to access their financial data, the country’s government is slowly moving toward creating its own open banking framework.

However, the local fintechs are seemingly not satisfied with the speed at which the process has been progressing. Dozens of tech leaders have signed a letter to the country’s finance minister, demanding for open banking action. Specifically, they want the authorities to publish a clear roadmap for the delivery of the open banking framework.

Canadian government is too slow with the implementation of open banking

The government initially promised to enact regulation by early 2023, but even now, with the year at its end, it has yet to do so. As a result, the fintech sector is getting impatient, and now they demand results.

Dozens of them, including Borrowell, Koho, and Neo Financial, have signed a letter coordinated by the Council of Canadian Innovation (CCI), stating that it is time for Canada to catch up with the EU, the US, as well as the UK, all of which were able to secure innovative and affordable open banking.

They also warned that the longer the fintechs have to wait for financial authorities to implement an adequate, secure financial system fitting for the 21st century, the greater the risk that Canadians will be exposed to.

In order to stress this, the signatories have joined up to start a new campaign called Canadians for Open Banking. Furthermore, this is the second campaign of this type in the last month and a half.

Canadians are largely unfamiliar with open banking

Previously, an industry group called Fintechs Canada joined up with EQ Bank, Wealthsimple, and Wise to roll out a campaign called Choose More in early October. The campaign sought to rally public support in order to push the government toward taking action and delivering an open banking and payments modernization framework.

Earlier this year, in June, a survey conducted by Deloitte revealed that only around 18% of participants were even familiar with the concept of open banking. Meanwhile, only 35% of Canadians who participated said that they were comfortable with sharing their data online, growing to 45% once the framework is implemented.

The latest letter to Minister Chrystia Freeland stated that the fintech leaders are calling on the minister and the Ministry of Finance to reaffirm their promise to enact open banking. They want a clear roadmap that would state when an open banking framework can be expected to be implemented. It also notes that many among those who signed the letter have made business investments, and have built entire strategies around minister Freeland’s election promises, and now they want assurance that those promises will be kept.