FDATA in the News

In an episode of the Fintech Impact podcast, host Jason Pereira speaks with FDATA North America’s Steve Boms about the fintech landscape in Canada and the United States and the importance of open banking for financial competition, technological innovation, consumer protection and data security, and payments modernization.

The CIOSC will release a draft of its minimum viable framework for consumer-directed finance around the end of 2021. But some involved in the process say it has become yet another venue for the ongoing power struggle between banks and fintechs over the future of open banking.

“We have come together united in support of the full implementation of phase one and two recommendations of the advisory committee on open banking and to respectfully request your public support for the same,” the groups state.

The job is still vacant six months after a federal advisory committee first recommended creating the position – a delay that has raised questions about the Liberal government’s ability to meet the committee’s recommendation to implement open banking by January 2023.

The [US] CFPB plans to have a data-sharing rule in place by April 2022. But Canadian report observers have shed much more on what an open banking regime would look like than the Bureau’s request for comment issued last fall, and could influence rulemaking in both countries.

The [Advisory Committee report] recommendations land at a time when other countries have already blazed ahead, and Canadian fintechs say they are losing opportunities to innovate in the financial industry

The [Executive] order urges the CFPB to commence a rulemaking under section 1033 to facilitate the portability of consumer financial transaction data so consumers can more easily switch financial institutions and use new, innovative financial products.

“We’ve been lagging behind many, many other developed countries. What this means is the era of open finance in the United States has begun in earnest – finally” stated FDATA North America Executive Director Steve Boms.

As Canada spins its wheels, other countries have already started implementing new regulations – and are seeing their fintech sectors expand, creating jobs in the process.