News and Insights
Consumer-Driven Banking Canada
Common Consumer-Driven Banking FAQ’s
What is Consumer-Driven Banking?
Consumer-driven finance gives you greater control over your financial information. With your permission, banks, credit unions, and approved financial apps can securely share your data, helping you compare services, manage your money, and access products that better fit your needs—without sharing your online banking password.
Consumers control their financial data
Canadians will be able to choose which approved financial service providers can access their financial information, what information is shared, and when that access must end.
Data sharing will be consent-based
A business cannot simply access a consumer’s banking information. The consumer must provide clear and informed consent, with the ability to review or withdraw that permission.
Secure APIs will replace screen scraping
Many Canadians currently connect financial apps by providing their online banking credentials. The regulated framework is intended to replace this risky process with secure, standardized API connections that do not require customers to share their passwords.
Participating organizations will be regulated
Banks, credit unions, fintechs and other data recipients will need to meet requirements covering security, privacy, governance, liability and operational risk before participating in the framework.
The Bank of Canada will oversee the framework
The Bank of Canada is expected to supervise participating organizations, administer the framework and enforce compliance with its requirements.
The framework is expected to expand beyond data sharing
The initial focus is secure access to financial information. The next planned phase includes payment initiation, allowing consumers to authorize payments directly from their bank accounts through approved third-party applications.