The federal government is officially promising to launch open banking in Canada in early 2026—but with chaos among the Liberals, a possible looming election and a missed deadline for introducing key legislation, the likelihood of meeting that target is in question.

A not-so-complete framework: The Liberals released what they called a “complete framework” for open banking along with the fall economic statement Monday. However, they also acknowledged there’s more to do, pledging to release a final set of legislation that addresses outstanding issues. Asked when the government intends to introduce it, Finance spokesperson Marie-France Faucher said in an email that it’s developing the regulations now and “more information will be available in the coming months.”

Alex Vronces, executive director of Fintechs Canada, said he was frustrated by the slow progress. The Liberals had previously promised to introduce such legislation in the fall and the introduction of open banking has been repeatedly delayed. “We need more contestable markets, which can’t be announced into existence,” he said in an email. “Say you’re going to do the job once and then just do it.”

Still, Abraham Tachjian, head of open banking at PwC and Canada’s former open banking lead to the government, said in an interview that the framework’s “biggest Christmas gift” is providing a formal launch target, which grants clarity to everyone involved.

Open banking takes shape: The document provides new details about forthcoming rules—and who oversees them—that will require banks to securely share data related to chequing and savings accounts, investment and lending products with outside companies to power services such as budgeting apps and accounting software, at a customer’s request.

The Department of Finance and the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) will work with designated provincial and territorial regulators to oversee open banking, according to the document. It also says the largest banks will be required to start sharing their data first; liability in the event of a security breach will rest with the firm that had control of the data at the time; and the minister of finance will have the authority to refuse or revoke access for national security reasons. As The Logic previously reported, the finance department had previously planned to introduce those three elements in legislation this fall.

An exclusive party: The FCAC will be responsible for vetting applications from fintechs and other companies that want access to open banking data. Every company will be subject to the same process regardless of size, at least initially. Steve Boms, executive director of the Financial Data and Technology Association of North America, a pro-open banking industry group, criticized this in a release, calling it a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Boms said it “threatens to further formalize a market dominated by just a handful of large incumbents.” 

If banks and other participants want to hire an outside company to help them move data, that company will also need to seek accreditation, according to the document. The framework is mum on whether banks will be allowed to require fintechs to work with a particular outside firm to obtain their data—a point of contention in the sector. The document clarifies that banks will have to share the data free of charge.

Scram, screen scraping: The document also confirms The Logic’s previous reporting that Ottawa is planning to eventually ban screen scraping, a data harvesting method many fintechs currently use to power their services in the absence of open banking. Ottawa provided few details about what such a ban would entail, saying it will come into force after open banking is “fully operational.” Both banks and fintechs have criticized the practice as being cumbersome, error-prone and insecure. It’s also widely used, however, which means a broad ban could cause apps powered by screen scraping to cease to function.