Canada Accelerates Open Banking: Key Updates from the New Budget

Canada’s journey toward Open Banking, or Consumer-Driven Banking (CDB) as they term it, received a significant push in the new federal budget released on November 4th 2025. The updates outline a clear path toward implementation, focusing on competition, governance and a robust future vision. 

A Clear Path to Data Mobility and Write Access 

In the budget, the government affirmed its commitment to introduce legislation to complete the Consumer-Driven Banking Act. This legislative backing is crucial, especially the commitment to provide a data-mobility right within PIPEDA (Canada’s primary privacy legislation). Incorporating data mobility into privacy regulations is a major signal, creating a strong legislative underpinning for economy-wide data sharing.

Crucially, the budget accelerates the next phase of CDB, setting a firm target to legislate “write access”, typically used to initiate payments, by mid-2027 –  a timeline that aligns with the expected widespread use of Canada’s new Real-Time-Rail payments modernization project. It is notable that the language used was “the ability to direct actions”, alongside examples such as switching accounts and bill payments, introducing the potential for a more extensive data sharing strategy.  

Streamlined Oversight and Funding

A key governance shift is the decision to delegate oversight of the Consumer-Driven Banking Act to the Bank of Canada (BoC).The BoC will retain up to $19.3 million over two years to support this implementation, while the $36.9 million previously allocated to another agency (FCAC) will not be spent, signalling a more focused financial commitment. Additionally, $25.7 million over five years will be dedicated to CSIS and the RCMP to support national security safeguards related to the new Act.

Our General Manager for North America, Eyal Sivan, commented: “Moving oversight to the BoC is a smart move, since they already rolled out the PSP registry and accreditation process. This also creates a clear line-of-sight to payment initiation and write access, committed to by 2027, demonstrating a strong commitment to Consumer-Driven banking overall.”

Creating a legislative underpinning by adding data mobility rights to PIPEDA is perhaps the most significant step of all, opening the door to broad data sharing across the entire economy. And the more general commitment to increasing competition in banking is a breath of fresh air for Canadians. Overall, the announcement felt like a strong step in the right direction”

For further expert insight on the status of consumer-driven banking in Canada, book a call with Eyal Sivan, Ozone API’s GM for North America.