Payments Canada has published its response to the Department of Finance’s proposed Consumer-Driven Banking Regulations, supporting the initial data sharing framework while outlining conditions for extending it to payment initiation. The initial “read” access phase should be proven, secure and effective before the transition to “write” access. Budget 2025 already committed to extending the framework to write access, including payment initiation, by mid-2027 and signalled a role for Payments Canada and the forthcoming Real-Time Rail. Screen scraping should be prohibited after a clearly defined transition period once data sharing through application programming interfaces is available, tested and operational. The transition to payment initiation should establish security and fraud controls, allocate accountability and liability, and provide clear, consistent recourse and dispute resolution. Interoperability with Payments Canada’s payment infrastructure should be a core design consideration, supported by operational readiness across participants. Payments Canada plans to work with the Department of Finance, the Bank of Canada and industry on the transition, and seek a close partnership with the designated Technical Standards Body to align consumer banking standards with its payment systems.
Payments Canada urges screen scraping phaseout and safeguards for banking write access
Payments Canada’s consultation response outlines safeguards for extending consumer banking data sharing to payment initiation, a step the government committed to enable by mid-2027. It recommends banning screen scraping after a defined transition once data sharing interfaces are available, tested and operational. The future framework should address security and fraud controls, liability and customer recourse while ensuring interoperability with Payments Canada’s systems.