OBExpo Canada 2024 attended by record number of delegates

Open Banking Expo Canada welcomed a record number of delegates through the doors of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC) on June 11, to hear from government and policymakers, as well as Canada’s largest banks, credit unions and fintechs.

Across the day, 625 delegates heard from 80 speakers spanning three stages, with sessions covering consumer-driven banking, Open Finance and payments.

The Main Stage, which was chaired by Eyal Sivan, general manager, North America at Ozone API, opened with a Fireside Chat with Kirsten Fraser, director, financial services innovation at Finance Canada, during which she discussed the government’s Consumer-Driven Banking Framework as set out in Budget 2024.

L-R: Kirsten Fraser of Finance Canada and Eyal Sivan of Ozone API.

Fraser answered Sivan’s questions on funding, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s role, and a possible go-live date, as well as what the ecosystem can expect from the next round of legislation.

They were followed on the Main Stage by Krista Broughton, director, Open Banking at Mastercard in Canada, and Ben Soccorsy, executive vice president, global Open Banking engagement office at Mastercard who discussed the future of consumer-driven banking in Canada and its partnership with Canadian fintech Vopay.

Broughton also took part in the first panel debate of the day, moderated by Cindy Zhang, senior associate, FS regulatory at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, discussing how to mobilize to get consumer-driven banking rolled out.

They were joined on stage by Surbhi Dhir, senior client partner at Publicis Sapient, and Sandeep Achar, director strategy, emerging businesses at BMO, who told attendees that banks and other ecosystem players are not waiting for Open Banking legislation to come in, but that they have been “working and investing to the extent we can”.

Saba Shariff, senior vice president, chief strategy, product and innovation officer at Symcor agreed that the ecosystem does not have to wait for legislation, while RBC’s Shekher Puri, vice president, digital components and platforms said that organisations “can start to mobilise with no regrets”.

Among other topics discussed throughout the day were how to ensure interoperability with the US, where Open Banking rulemaking is set to come into effect later this year, and the real-time payments landscape in Canada and how it might interface with Open Banking.

The venue also played host to the inaugural Women in Open Banking Meetup for Canadian members of the initiative.

Members heard from Shruti Awasthi, director of Open Banking strategy at CIBC, Shanti Samaroo, Atlantic Edge Credit Union’s chief financial officer and Ellie Zolghadr, director, solution architect for BigTech and FinTech at Mastercard.

They told moderator Donna Galloway, vice president of marketing at Portfolio+ about how they discovered their own styles of leadership, the mentors they’ve had along the way and building self-confidence.

Main image: Adam Cox, co-founder and managing director of Open Banking Expo, on the Main Stage