At Open Banking Expo Canada 2025, a high-powered panel of experts convened for a Powerhouse Debate titled ‘Canada’s Open Banking Revolution: Accelerating progress and tackling challenges’. Moderated by Mauricio Deutsch, senior vice president, banking & capital markets at GFT, the session examined the progress, priorities and pitfalls as Canada races to implement Open Banking by early 2026.
The debate featured a dynamic mix of voices from across the ecosystem: Karnan Ariaratnam, vice president digital payments and Open Banking at Symcor, Alana Barnes, director, digital policy at the Canadian Bankers Association, Judy Bei, managing director, global head of domestic payments and receivables at Citi, Natacha Boudrias, Open Banking lead at National Bank of Canada, and Samantha Tom, vice president and general counsel at Borrowell.
Together, they delivered a clear message: momentum is building, but execution, interoperability and trust will make or break Canada’s Open Banking ambitions.
Consumer-Driven Banking Act sets the stage
Canada’s Open Banking framework took a significant step forward last year with the passage of the Consumer-Driven Banking Act within Bill C-69. The legislation mandates read-only data sharing for designated entities, annual consent renewal, and a standardised API framework. A technical standards body will guide implementation, while the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) has been appointed as the oversight authority.
Yet the panel stressed that key components of Part Two of the legislation – accreditation criteria for fintechs, liability frameworks for fraud and outages, and finalised technical standards – remain in development. These must be completed in 2025 to support a full launch in early 2026.
Deutsch said: “Has the industry been waiting for legislation? The answer is no. The industry is actually making a lot of progress, building the APIs, the API infrastructure, the safety and consent infrastructure as well, running some pilots, of course participating in regulation design.
“So, the industry is moving along and trying to be really prepared for when this becomes a reality.”
Standards: the runway for takeoff
A central theme of the debate was the critical role of standardisation in achieving interoperability, reducing costs and ensuring security. Both Boudrias and Ariaratnam emphasised that API standards are not bureaucratic roadblocks but enablers of scale and consistency.
“We need to develop standardized APIs and ensure seamless integration across platform, but also across industry, because everybody here wants to make consumer driven banking bigger than banking,” said Boudrias. “Standards are not red tape – they’re a runway for takeoff.”
Bei of Citi echoed this sentiment, highlighting that standardised APIs – like those being adopted in Canada through the Financial Data Exchange (FDX) – can replace fragmented, bilateral data-sharing models that are costly and inefficient.
Competition and inclusion: addressing the two-tier risk
Borrowell’s Tom pointed to market concentration as a key barrier to innovation, with over 90% of assets controlled by Canada’s Big Six banks. She called for tiered accreditation to allow smaller fintechs to participate without facing disproportionate compliance burdens.
“I will say that there is a real risk that you will have that two-tiered system. So, to me, tiered accreditation makes a lot of sense. You basically balance managing the specific risk that each entity poses, but also trying to bring in as many participants as possible so that adoption goes well,” Tom told delegates.
Trust and awareness: the cultural shift ahead
Beyond technical readiness, panellists agreed that consumer trust and awareness will be paramount. Boudrias framed Open Banking as “a cultural shift”, not just a technical one, stressing that trust must be earned daily by institutions.
Ariaratnam added that consistent user experiences and transparency around consent will be key to consumer adoption.
Tom highlighted international examples like the UK tax authority’s integration with Open Banking as a model for building public confidence through trusted entities.
Innovation through use cases
When asked about high-impact use cases, panellists pointed to areas such as:
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Account aggregation and personal financial management
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Seamless account switching and digital KYC
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Fraud prevention using multi-bank transaction data
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Smarter credit assessments – especially for newcomers and renters
Boudrias also emphasised support for entrepreneurs and SMEs as a largely untapped opportunity area.
National Bank’s recent partnership with Flinks was cited as a practical example of progress. Under this arrangement, third parties can connect securely via Flinks, provided they meet National Bank’s privacy and consent requirements.
Cross-border interoperability with the US
Interoperability with US systems was flagged as both an opportunity and a challenge. Bei warned that without harmonised standards and accreditation frameworks, partnerships can take years to form. However, Canada’s adoption of FDX – a widely used US standard – is seen as a positive step toward alignment.
Eventually, Open Banking won’t be domestic – it will be cross-border, according to Bei, who urged global thinking.
Ecosystem collaboration is critical
The panellists repeatedly called for a “made-in-Canada” approach rooted in collaboration between banks, fintechs, regulators and consumers.
Alana talked about leveraging existing oversight frameworks and aligning privacy rules across federal and provincial jurisdictions,, with consistency being key.
Looking ahead: delivery is what matters now
Despite Canada’s relatively slow start compared to markets like the UK or Australia, there was optimism that meaningful delivery is on the horizon.
“We might see slow progress in Canada, but again, it’s not no progress. We’ve seen industry engagement, we’ve seen all this expertise here today in this room or on the stage, but we haven’t seen yet much delivery. So this is where it gets real. In fact, what matters now is execution,” concluded Boudrias.
With bipartisan political support, an engaged ecosystem, and growing consumer demand, Canada appears closer than ever to realising its Open Banking vision – but only if momentum continues through 2025.
As Deutsch reminded attendees: “It‘s a collaboration between all the parties, right? Collaboration between government, within financial institutions, fintechs, all parties involved will be the key to making this consumer driven banking a reality.”
Further reading: Symcor’s Saba Shariff calls for bold execution to propel Canada’s Open Banking future
