The Canadian Government’s Budget 2025 should provide for the “rapid” implementation of Open Banking in Canada and should also outline a clear approach to Open Finance, FDATA North America has recommended.
In its written submission to the Canadian House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) for pre-Budget consultations ahead of the 2025 Budget, FDATA North America set out two main recommendations.
Its first recommendation is that the government include language in the budget to “provide for the rapid and well-governed implementation of Canada’s Open Banking system, ensuring that both consumer and small business owners have full access to the benefits of the system and that the growth of Canada’s innovation economy is appropriately prioritized”.
FDATA North America stated that small business accounts should be “unequivocally made part of the first phase of Canada’s Open Banking regime”.
In Budget 2024 delivered on April 16, the Department of Finance announced that the mandate of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) will be expanded to include oversight, administration and enforcement of consumer-driven banking, and that it will receive $1 million.
FDATA North America has asked for FINA to ensure the FCAC is given “sufficient” funding to attract civil servants with expertise in financial technology, consumer-permissioned data and Open Banking, and to educate consumer and small business users of the framework.
At Open Banking Expo Canada on June 11, Kirsten Fraser, director, financial services innovation at Finance Canada, told delegates that the amounts pledged in the budget were “not intended to be the extent of what the FCAC will receive for administration and oversight of the Act”.
“The money is meant to fill the gap until a final decision is made about what is required to resource it appropriately,” Fraser said.
Elsewhere in its written submission, FDATA North America said the next federal budget should ensure that the FCAC’s enforcement of compliance with Open Banking requirements is “uniformly and consistently applied” and that it is “scaled” to encourage “small, innovative companies” into the marketplace.
Its second recommendation is that Canada should begin thinking about what its Open Finance regime will look like, calling it “the next logical step after Open Banking, and the framework needed to truly unlock market innovation and competition to benefit Canadian consumers and businesses”.
According to FDATA North America, “by putting a stake in the ground and committing to a timeline” to deliver Open Finance, Budget 2025 would “stimulate market-driven progress” and help to improve consumers’ and small businesses’ financial wellbeing.
Further reading: Does Canada need an interoperable path with the US?
Source link : https://www.openbankingexpo.com/news/fdata-north-america-canadas-budget-2025-should-commit-to-open-finance-timeline/
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Publish date : 2024-07-26 11:10:48
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