ACCC publishes draft rules for open banking data sharing

The Consumer Data Right, announced by the government in May 2018, will enable consumers to take control of their personal data and direct banks to share it with third-party, accredited service providers in order to get more tailored, competitive services. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was delegated the lead role in rule-making, consumer education and enforcement.

In a consultation last September2018, the ACCC proposed a CDR framework which gave stakeholders an understanding of the structure and content of proposed rules that it said would underpin the implementation of open banking, including a phased approach to implementation.

The ACCC has now published draft rules for the CDR regime, which proposes three ways to request data: product data requests from consumers, consumer data requests from consumers, and consumer data requests made by an ‘accredited person’ on behalf of consumers.

Australia’s big four banks are set to make data available on credit and debit cards, and deposit and transaction accounts by 1 July 2019, and mortgages by 1 February 2020. Other banks will be brought into scope within an additional 12 months.