At the Payments Canada Summit in Toronto, Saba Shariff, head of new product development and corporate strategy at Symcor, a data-exchange company and joint venture of TD Bank, RBC and BMO, said that a hybrid approach is ideal for open banking, a system that would give consumers the ability to share financial data with a third-party provider. “This cannot just be a hop into an industry-led solution. It can’t also be just a regulatory-led solution,” she said. Rather it has to take the “best of what industry can do … and the best of what government can do.” (The Logic)

Talking point: Shariff cited the industry’s insights on standards, user experiences, sandboxes and testing, along with a possible government role in determining accreditation rules and liability requirements. The Logic previously reported that Canada’s big financial institutions have pushed for an industry-led approach, where participants regulate themselves, while fintechs prefer a government-created “fit-for-purpose” entity to oversee the system and enforce a code of conduct. Sources said incumbents were pushing for Symcor to become the sole technology provider, operating like a utility, which raised concerns among fintech players.