Federal Advisory Committee On Open Banking's Final Report Released

A long anticipated report from a federal advisory committee on open banking was released publicly this month, several months after being submitted privately to the government in April 2021. The Advisory Committee on Open Banking's final report (the "Report") calls for the government to implement an open banking system in 18 months, designed jointly through input from the federal government and industry. "Open banking" refers to a system which provides customers the ability to share their banking and financial data with financial services providers, with the ultimate aim of increasing competition and innovation and giving users greater control over their data.

The Report follows several developments in this space over the last few years. In January 2020, the same committee issued its first report (see our previous blog post here) in connection with the Department of Finance Canada's consultation process on open banking, a process that began in January 2019. In July