NAB and NatWest co-author Consumer Data Right Whitepaper

NAB and NatWest co-author Consumer Data Right Whitepaper

As more sectors come on board with the Consumer Data Right and Australia prepares for action initiation to be brought within the regime, NAB and NatWest have jointly authored a paper exploring the common threads that bind both Australia’s Consumer Data Right (CDR) and the UK’s Open Banking regime.

The whitepaper explores the similarities in the policies that underpin both regimes: to increase competition, innovation and to empower consumers with control over their data. As well as how the two countries have diverged in their journeys to implementing these frameworks, notably in relation to their respective scope in terms of ‘breadth versus depth’.

One of the report’s authors, NAB Executive Digital & Data Governance, Brad Carr, said there’s a lot to be learnt for both jurisdictions.

“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’,” Carr said.

“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.”

Angela Mentis, NAB Chief Digital, Data & Analytics Officer said customers will be the beneficiaries of this convergence as the economy becomes increasingly digitised.

“We’re exploring ways we can utilise open banking to improve experiences and make things easier for our customers,” Mentis said.

“As an active data recipient, one of the areas we’re looking at is how open banking can help us enable instant credit decisions.

“Immediate decisioning will have a transformative effect on the customer experience and allow us to better support a customers’ financial wellbeing.”

The UK and the Australian regimes are now at a critical juncture of their respective development, 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.

Three to four years on, is Open Banking in the UK and the CDR in Australia heading in the right direction? And are they moving quickly enough to be impactful in their respective economies?