Mexico's CNBV sued over inability to publish Open Finance rules

According to eleconomista.com.mx, the lawsuit was filed on 21 June 2023 by a Mexican citizen named Juan Pablo Ybarra Llamas, who claimed that CNBV and Banxico went against the precepts established in the country’s Constitution by failing to issue the secondary provisions of the Open Finance model in accordance with Mexico’s Fintech Law. 

In March 2018, the Government of Mexico introduced a law to regulate financial technology institutions (also known as the Fintech Law), which focuses on promoting innovation and integrating new technologies with existing banking and financial services. The law received a positive reaction from investors and fintech companies with established business models according to sumsub.com. 

The Open Finance model was included in Article 76 of the Fintech Law with the aim of allowing the entities that make up the financial system to share different types of data and generate better financial services. The regulations indicate that the authorities had a period of 24 months to issue secondary provisions in this regard. However, CNBV has only published a series of guidelines focusing on the subject of ATMs on 4 June 2020.

The direct impact on consumers

When he filed the lawsuit, Ybarra Llamas claimed that the CNBV’s failure to issue secondary provisions violated his human right to access financial services that contribute to his development, as recognised by Article 4 of the Constitution. He specifically mentioned the lack of operating rules for APIs, which hindered his ability to access diverse financial products and services that could adapt to his needs and preferences. 

He also claimed that the authority’s inaction violates Constitutional Article 6 because by not having the operating rules of the Open Finance model, his right to grant or revoke his consent for financial entities to share his information with other authorised institutions is violated. 

In 2021, the CNBV made some progress in the creation of secondary rules for transactional data. The drafts for these rules touched on subjects such as requirements for applicants and providers of transactional data, safety guidelines, guidelines for client consent, considerations for data providers, and architecture rules. However, progress slowed down considerably with the November 2021 CNBV presidency change, as the publication of the rules was postponed until further notice.