Contact: Laine Williams, (202) 897-4757, [email protected]
Washington, DC, January 16, 2024 – The Financial Data and Technology Association of North America (FDATA), a trade association representing more than three dozen financial technology and open finance companies in the United States and Canada, today sent a letter to The Hon. Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs, urging him to prioritize the long-delayed implementation of Canada’s consumer-driven finance framework.
FDATA North America highlighted the urgent need to ensure Canadians benefit from an open finance regime to foster affordability, competition, and improved consumer access to financial services. In the letter, we underscored that Canadians still lack these benefits seven years after the Government first announced its intention to establish a consumer-driven finance ecosystem in Budget 2018.
By empowering Canadians with control over their financial data, FDATA North America emphasized that such a framework would address barriers created under Canada’s highly concentrated financial sector. In this environment, consumers and small businesses frequently face high fees, limited access to credit, and slow transaction settlement times.
The letter noted that Minister Dominic LeBlanc is the third Minister of Finance with the opportunity to deliver an inclusive, consumer-centric ecosystem that could significantly improve the financial wellbeing of millions of Canadians. FDATA North America urged Minister LeBlanc to advance this initiative and reaffirmed its readiness to provide data, insights, and support to advance this critical work.
A full copy of the letter is available here.