Australias big four to be initial target for open banking

For ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, NAB and Westpac, the new open banking rules will function as a subset of the yet-to-be-legislated Consumer Data Right (CDR). Under the open banking regime, customers will be able to direct that their bank release data, via an API, relating to their use of the bank’s services to a third party.

Open banking will initially only relate to current customers of banks that use online banking services. The ACCC envisages that the first tranche of open banking rules will come into effect from 1 July 2019. Within 12 months, all Australian banks, including the related brands of the big four, will be brought within the scope of open banking.

The government released an exposure draft of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Consumer Data Right) Bill 2018 in August 2018, which will implement the CDR. The bill would task the ACCC with determining how the CDR will apply to a particular sector of the economy. Following banking, the telecommunications and energy sectors are expected to be among the first industries to be subject to CDR obligations.