The Canadian Government has established an advisory committee on Open Banking.
According to a release, the committee will explore the ‘potential and pitfalls’ of a regime which would give consumers the ability to share their financial data with third parties.
Establishing the Advisory Committee is the first step in a Government of Canada review of the potential merits of open banking, as announced as part of the federal budget 2018. Later this, a consultation paper is set to be released to help guide the Advisory Committee’s engagement with Canadians.
The new four-person Committee will be tasked with examining the results of a consultation with stakeholders and will deliver a report assessing the potential merits of Open Banking for Canada, with the highest regard for consumer privacy, security and financial stability.
Minister of Finance Bill Morneau said: “As technology continues to drive change in the financial sector, we must ensure that the needs of consumers—for more affordable and convenient services—are considered alongside the needs of the financial institutions that serve them. I congratulate the members of the Advisory Committee on their appointments, and look forward to the results of their consultations on open banking.”
Morneau has launched the Advisory Committee on Open Banking, and announced the appointment of its four members: Colleen Johnston, François Lafortune, Kirsten Thompson and Ilse Treurnicht.
Johnston was most recently Group Head, Direct Channels, Technology, Marketing and Corporate & Public Affairs for TD Bank, where she helped reshape the bank, its technology capabilities and the digital and customer experience.
Lafortune is a Montréal-based entrepreneur and investor with fifteen years’ experience in building businesses and the financial technology sector. He is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Diagram, a venture launchpad that helps create and launch technology companies pursuing disruptive innovation in the financial and insurance sectors, and a partner of the venture capital arm of Power Financial Corporation.
Kirsten Thompson is a partner in the law firm Dentons Canada in Toronto and is the national lead of their Transformative Technologies and Data Strategy group, while Treurnicht was most recently the CEO of the MaRS Discovery District, a leading innovation hub in Toronto.
Open banking has the potential to offer a new, secure way for Canadian consumes and small businesses to share their financial transaction data with financial service providers.
It is also expected that by giving FinTechs and other financial service providers increased access to consumer financial transaction data, they will be able to develop products more tailored to consumer needs and preferences—helping to boost the level of competition in the financial sector.
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
