Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1694571926046.pdf (Australia)
Senate Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology Treasury submission on measures relating to the Consumer Data Right December 2020 Financial Technology and Regulatory TechnologySubmission 166 - Supplementary Submission Financial Technology and Regulatory TechnologySubmission 166 - Supplementary Submission SUPPORTING FINTECH AND REGTECH BUSINESSES Treasury welcomes the opportunity to work with the committee to explore opportunities and address barriers to support the growth of Australia’s financial technology and regulatory technology sectors.
This submission focuses on the Consumer Data Right in relation to these identified issues.

THE CONSUMER DATA RIGHT The Consumer Data Right (CDR) is a significant economic reform intended to benefit Australian consumers and businesses, encourage competition, and foster the growth of an innovative Australian data industry by increasing data portability.

The CDR provides individuals and businesses with a right to directly access specified data relating to them held by businesses (e.g.
credit card transaction data or electricity metering data); and to authorise secure access to this data by accredited third parties.

The CDR also enables access to product data in machine readable form – e.g.

the key terms and conditions for all mortgages on offer in Australia.

The CDR will be rolled out economy-wide on a sector- by-sector basis, beginning with the banking and energy sectors.
On 23 January 2020, the Treasurer announced that Scott Farrell would lead the Inquiry into Future Directions for the Consumer Data Right to consider further possibilities to leverage the CDR.

This report was finalised in October, and is currently being considered by Government.

Functional reallocation As part of the 2020-21 Budget, the Government announced the movement of the rulemaking and sectoral assessment functions from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to the Treasury.
With the CDR regime having launched and focus now shifting to the expansion of its coverage, this refocussing of priorities will best be accompanied by new organisational arrangements to ensure the system is scalable, sustainable and developed in a coordinated way with broader digital policy initiatives.
The Data Standards Body (DSB) will also move from the CSIRO to the Treasury to support greater alignment of standards and rules development but retain its independence in setting the standards for the regime.

Treasury has created a new Consumer Data Right Division to lead Treasury’s policy work on CDR and to accommodate the movement of these new responsibilities into Treasury.
The new Treasury Division will advise on the overall CDR strategy, and establish and oversee the governance, rules, funding and leadership of the program, in close partnership with key regulators such as ACCC, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and other sector regulators and through strong connections with industry, consumers, and international counter-parts.

It will also support alignment with other intersecting Government digital and competition policies.
It will continue the successful and timely rollout of the Consumer Data Right to the banking and energy sectors, the designation and rollout to additional sectors, and provide advice on new reforms.

While rulemaking and sectoral assessment powers are moving to Treasury, the CDR will remain a multi-agency policy initiative, requiring ongoing engagement with a variety of agencies and regulators.
1 Financial Technology and Regulatory TechnologySubmission 166 - Supplementary Submission Publication name This will ensure that the regime develops in a way that aligns with consumer needs and broader digital development.

The ACCC and OAIC will both retain their important work as regulators supported by the work of the DSB.

Future prospects for the CDR Internationally, a wide range of governments are considering the benefits of increasing data portability through regimes similar to the CDR.
Though each regime will inevitably be unique, with differences in scope, functionality and standard setting, it would be beneficial to ensure that there is enough commonality to enable international cooperation and engagement where appropriate.

In designing the CDR, it is important to engage internationally to ensure interoperability between data portability regimes.
In this context, international interoperability means that technology and systems built for one regime can be used with minimal changes in another regime or that similar systems can be connected relatively easily by ‘technology bridges’.

A CDR that is internationally interoperable offers potential benefits for Australian consumers and businesses.

Consumers could benefit from a more competitive market for data-enabled services.

This could give consumers greater choice and access to benefits.
Aligning the CDR with international regimes would also give Australian data driven businesses greater opportunity to access overseas markets.

When designing the CDR, the Review into Open Banking in Australia drew heavily on the work already conducted by the United Kingdom in developing its Open Banking regime.

Leveraging this work allowed the CDR to build on these experiences and incorporate features to allow greater cooperation in future.
The UK has, in turn, looked to Australia’s design decisions to help expand its data portability regime.

The UK is now looking to implement a ‘Smart Data’ initiative, allowing data portability in other sectors, beginning with the energy and pension markets.

A publication setting out the next steps for accelerating smart data initiatives was released in September 2020.
Treasury is keeping abreast of international developments and is mindful of opportunities to engage with other countries progressing reform in this area.

Treasury has previously worked with representatives from a number of countries to better understand international approaches to data sharing, including the United Kingdom, Singapore and New Zealand.
Further engagement with a range of foreign jurisdictions was also made during the Inquiry into Future Directions for the Consumer Data Right, with a number of findings and recommendations summarised in the report.

Treasury welcomes the committee’s findings regarding options to further promote international engagement.

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