PRIVACY ISSUES AND
OWNERSHIP OF DATA
A discussion on open banking fosters many
questions about who controls and owns the
financial data of consumers collected by a
bank. Is it the individual consumer or the
bank? A very important question concerns
whether banking data can be commoditized
and sold by banks to third parties. A
concentration of data in the hands of a few,
well-resourced players would undoubtedly
result in oligopolies or even monopolies
controlling business and possessing the
dangerous potential to manipulate consumers.
e issues around Facebook's sale of data
from 50 million users to Cambridge Analytica
are still probably fresh in everyone's minds
as we contemplate the merits of open
banking.
T
he provincial mortgage association
members of CMBA recently
submitted a comment letter to the
Finance Canada Panel reviewing
open banking in Canada.
Of critical note is that the government's lengthy
consultation paper on open banking does not
identify or in any way acknowledge the presence
of financial intermediaries, such as mortgage
brokers, in its discussion of open banking concepts
and how banking will change in the future.
We want to ensure that Finance Canada
understands the role of mortgage brokers in the
mortgage arranging process and in particular that
mortgage brokers have been a catalyst for open
banking since their emergence in the 1970s. Our
letter, which is reproduced below, provides insight
to Finance Canada on challenges with "regulatory
blurring," privacy issues and data ownership.
We agree that it is inevitable that open
banking concepts are likely to take root in
Canada within the foreseeable future. Open
banking represents a global, unstoppable
movement which promises to dramatically
change how consumers make financial
decisions, borrow and plan for their
financial futures. We wish to raise a number
of issues for your consideration, which are:
n
Privacy issues and data ownership;
n
Regulatory blurring between regulated
parties and third-party service providers;
n
Pre-existing regulatory blurring between
federal and provincial financial service
providers, which may be compounded by
open banking; and
n
e role of provincial mortgage brokers
in open banking.
OPEN BANKING:
CMBA'S
VIEW
A submission to the Finance Canada Panel
BY SAMANTHA GALE
12
| spring 2019 cmba-achc.ca CMB MAGAZINE
