Non-major banks score open banking data deadline extension

The Minister for Financial Services and the Digital Economy, Jane Hume, has agreed to grant a “short extension” to non-major banks after they told her they needed more time to enable joint accounts under the CDR, or open banking, scheme.

Non-major banks will now be required to commence sharing of joint account data from 1 October.

The CDR will include accounts held by more than one person, such as home loans.

By doing this, the government has aimed for consumers to be able to use the data-sharing scheme to find better value products.

“Implementation of the CDR in the banking sector has continued to progress, with consumers now able to securely share banking data with accredited third parties to access better value products and services,” Ms Hume said.

“This change in the commencement date will help ensure the ongoing success of the consumer data right.”

Non-major banks commenced sharing accounts and transaction data under the open banking scheme from July last year.

Concerns were also raised around a proposed opt-out model for joint accounts under the open banking regime in 2021, where an individual joint account holder would have been able to independently share data and consent to an accredited institution to collect and use the information.

Account holders would have needed to proactively turn off the data sharing prior to the scheme commencing or to stop the process after it has started.

The Financial Rights Legal Centre protested the model, stating it undermined privacy rights and consent and could raise risks of financial abuse, elder abuse or domestic violence.

However, data holders (banks or other financial institutions) must now provide a joint account management service, allowing each joint account holder to choose a preference around data sharing.

The options are pre-approval, where data can be independently shared by all requesting joint account holders, or co-approval, where all joint account holders must approve the disclosure of data before it can be shared.

In mid-March, Treasury began an industry consultation on expanding the CDR to non-bank lenders.

[Related: Mutuals fastest with transactional data]