Yesterday afternoon, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, released the long-awaited final report from the Advisory Committee on Open Banking, available here. The Report includes 34 recommendations on how to implement a secure open banking system in Canada by January 2023. It includes CCUA’s number one priority that credit unions be able to participate in open banking voluntarily, and many other priorities advanced by CCUA throughout the consultations.
The recommendations from this report are the product of two phases of consultations, research conducted by the Senate, and countless other industry engagements since 2018, all of which included extensive participation and input from CCUA, credit unions, and other industry stakeholders. This regular and persistent engagement with key stakeholders in government led to the lion’s share of our policy recommendations being included in the Report. Recommendations included in the report that were made by the credit union sector included, but are not limited to:

• The ability for credit unions to participate in Open Banking on a voluntary basis
• Policymakers and regulators at the federal, provincial and territorial levels are to be included in the development process of the Open Banking framework, as to ensure alignment from a regulatory perspective
• Governance bodies having balanced representation from participating industries
• Reciprocity of data-sharing, with exemptions for proprietary data
• Accreditation, liability, and redress procedures to protect the interests of members and consumers

The report recommends that all participants other than federally-regulated banks be accredited, but that the government should seriously consider waiving the accreditation requirement for credit unions. We will consult with members broadly on how to approach this question as the government and Finance Minister contemplate their legislative approach in light of this report.
A full summary and analysis will be released by CCUA next week. For a refresher on open banking developments since 2018, as well as an overview of how CCUA and credit unions have worked to help shape the Open Banking process to date, you can read CCUA’s latest report here.
CCUA will continue to advocate on behalf of credit unions to ensure that these recommendations become part of the official Open Banking Framework.
We would like to thank all credit unions who have supported CCUA since 2018 in the establishment of these policy recommendations and in advocating for them. Our results have paid off, but there is still much more work to do to ensure that credit unions be fully able to prosper in a future open banking framework in Canada.