Wizards of Oz pull back curtain on open banking
The final report into a review on open banking in Australia has been released – and the public consultation is not over yet.
To give you some background, on 20 July 2017, Scott Morrison MP commissioned the Open Banking Review, chaired by Scott Farrell who was asked to recommend the most appropriate model for open banking in the country.
As with the UK model, the idea is to give customers greater access to and control over their banking data.
The 158-page report published by the Australian government makes 50 recommendations, on the regulatory framework, the type of banking data in scope, privacy and security safeguards for banking customers, the data transfer mechanism and implementation issues.
That report is the usual long-winded generic stuff that floats in the fintech ether. But to give you an idea it says “customer data should be transferred via APIs” and a “period of approximately 12 months should be allowed from a final government decision on open banking for implementation”. There is nothing that exciting or surprising in it. You can read it here. Have fun.
Back to modern history again, and on 26 November 2017, Angus Taylor MP, the then Assistant Minister for Cities and Digital Transformation, announced the development of a national Consumer Data Right (CDR).
The Treasurer will be leading the development of the CDR, with the design of the broader CDR informed by the recommendations of the Open Banking Review. The announcement formed part of the government’s response to the recommendations of the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into Data Availability and Use. The CDR will give customers the right to access their data in a machine-readable form.
The government has decided that the CDR will be implemented economy-wide on a sector-by-sector basis, initially in the banking, energy, and telecommunications sectors.
While the Open Banking Review has “consulted extensively”, the government is looking for more comments on the recommendations before making final decisions on implementation.
Submissions should be lodged by 23 March 2018 and you can do that here.
