UK bank NatWest and the National Bank of Australia (NAB) have co-launched a white paper emphasising the requirement for a greater focus on consumer data control.
The two major banks explore commonalities between Open Banking and Australia’s Consumer Data Right (CDR) in the joint-report, analysing policies that give greater credence to the importance of smart data and how it should be handled.
Both NAB and Natwest hope to set an agenda and bring both data-driving sectors together to highlight increase in competition, innovation and to empower consumers with control over their data.
The white paper also explores how the UK and Australia have diverged in their journeys to implementing these frameworks, notably in relation to their respective scope in terms of ‘breadth versus depth’.
“By collaborating with NAB on this report we shared valuable lessons from the UK’s implementation of Open Banking, as well as our own experiences at NatWest of going above and beyond the mandate with the creation of our Bank of APIs ecosystem,” commented Claire Melling, Head of Bank of APIs at Natwest.
“We also have lessons to learn here in the UK from Australia’s approach to the Consumer Data Right – especially in terms of the breadth of data access being implemented there. It’s important that the industry acts on this insight from Australia as we transition from Open Banking to Open Finance, and smart data in the UK.”
One of the report’s authors, NAB Executive Digital & Data Governance, Brad Carr, said there is a lot to be learnt for both jurisdictions.
He said: “Consumers are now looking for more integration and connection between the main experiences they have every day, and that means evolving from ‘Open Banking’ to ‘Open Data’.
“There are a number of insights and lessons we can glean from Australia and the UK’s journeys in relation to Open Banking and the Consumer Data Right.
“It has been great to partner with our friends at NatWest on this report, as the UK was an early adopter of Open Banking and many other nations, including Australia, looked to the UK’s experience in developing their own regimes.”
The UK and the Australian regimes are now at a juncture between their respective developments, with the UK looking beyond banking and finance to open data, and Australia shifting focus to grow adoption of the regime and support greater system functionality.
Open Banking has proved to become a hallmark of the UK’s exponential growth within the financial sector, with users applying the payment data strategy now standing at 7 million people, with Juniper also detailing Open Banking’s value could reach $330bn globally by 2027.
