On June 19th, 2019, the Senate Standing Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce (Senate Banking Committee) released the report,  Open Banking: What it Means for You, Following the release of this report, Senators Colin Deacon and Howard Wetston continued to invest a considerable amount of time advancing the issue of open banking. Their ongoing efforts reflect the Senate Banking Committee’s unanimous view that Canada should urgently develop and implement an open banking framework.

More than two years later, on August 4th, 2021, the Honourable Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, released the Advisory Committee on Open Banking (Advisory Committee)’s April 2021 Final Report.

Following a request from Senator Wetston, recent chair of the Senate Banking Committee, the Library of Parliament completed a side-by-side comparison between the 10 recommendations made by the Senate Banking Committee and the 34 recommendations made by the Advisory Committee. 

The comparison identified that the Advisory Committee’s report contains additional, more detailed recommendations than those outlined in the Senate Banking Committee’s report, but that they did not differ in terms of direction or intent. It is reasonable to conclude that additional insight was garnered due to the Advisory Committee’s second round of consultations, the rapidly accelerating global experience in open banking, and the increasing attention to the topic in Canada.

Senators Wetston and Deacon hope that that the swift implementation of an opening banking framework will be prioritized by the federal government, targeting the current January 2023 deadline recommended by the Advisory Committee, and rapidly expanding and iterating from there.