Canada’s CIO Strategy Council calls for input into proposed Open Finance standard

Canadian national forum the CIO Strategy Council has published a proposed draft standard for Open Finance and is inviting input from stakeholders.

The draft standard specifies minimum requirements for planning, designing, developing, implementing, maintaining, and improving the customer experience and access to customer banking, transaction, and other financial data from bank and non-bank financial institutions, according to the CIO Strategy Council.

It also includes provisions on design and experience principles, authentication, authorisation, consent, and data portability.

In February 2021, the CIO Strategy Council announced it had begun working with stakeholders, including Open Banking Initiative Canada and the Financial Data Exchange, on a new suite of national standards for consumer directed finance in Canada.

Eyal Sivan, head of Open Banking at Axway, said: “The CIO Strategy Council has long been fundamental to the establishment of core strategic standards in Canada by bringing key stakeholders together at one table.

“The approach being taken to Open Finance is no exception, including voices from banks, both large and small, credit unions, fintechs, policymakers and global experts.”

He added: “The standard aims to distil of all these views into a simple, proven set of guidelines that will help Canada enter the Open Banking arena with strong momentum, squarely focused on customer needs. I strongly encourage all those interested to review the draft standard and contribute.”

The standard applies to organisations providing financial products and services, of any type or size, “including third-party providers that design products or services to facilitate access to customer banking, transaction, and other financial data from bank and non-bank financial institutions”.

The draft, CAN/CIOSC 110-1, Open Finance – Part 1: Customer Experience, is available for public review until 23 May 2022 and can be viewed here.