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Ottawa plans to extend the principles behind open banking to other sectors, potentially requiring companies in industries beyond finance to share customer data with third parties upon request, it said in Thursday’s federal budget.

While a launch date for the legislation has yet to be announced, the federal Liberals named telecommunications and transportation as sectors it wants to bring into the framework. The government intends to implement the plan after new federal privacy legislation introduced in June passes.

Expanding data portability—the idea that if a customer asks a company to release their data, the company has to comply—beyond banking would “make it easier for customers to switch providers,” according to the budget. Canadians could also “securely reuse their information when choosing different services.”

Talking Points

  • The federal Liberals named telecommunications and transportation as sectors it wants to be required to share data with third parties at a customer’s request in the 2026 federal budget
  • The budget includes a variety of measures intended to boost competition in the financial services sector, including adding competition to the federal banking regulator’s mandate

The U.K. and Australia have similar ambitions. The U.K. plans to extend data portability to at least five sectors by 2030 and 20 or more by 2035, while Australia’s consumer data rights framework covers both banking and energy, with plans to extend it to non-bank lending.

Open banking lets customers track spending, do bookkeeping and monitor their investments across all their accounts by sharing their financial data through a secure feed with fintechs providing those services. Extending data portability to telecommunications and transportation could help consumers compare cellphone plans and switch providers, track and optimize internet and mobile spending across a business, or plan door-to-door trips pulling data from bus, rail, bike and ride share operators.

Ottawa’s ambitious expansion plans come amid repeated delays in implementing open banking, which has historically been a flashpoint between banks and fintechs. The budget has no new details on next steps for the framework. As The Logic previously reported, the financial services industry is still waiting for the Department of Finance to name an organization to set data standards for the framework. The decision has been delayed over sovereignty concerns because the Financial Data Exchange, the most widely used technical standard for financial data sharing in North America, has American roots.

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Asked why Finance is planning to expand its data portability ambitions even as open banking remains in limbo, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said that “when it comes to open banking, we have a journey.” He added that the government is very committed to open banking and “there are more announcements to come.”

The budget also includes a variety of measures intended to increase competition in the financial services sector, which is concentrated among a handful of big banks. The federal government plans to expand the mandate of Canada’s banking regulator, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), to include competition. OSFI will be required to consider proportionality, compliance burden and market impacts when it makes rules, in addition to financial system safety.

Additionally, the federal Liberals intend to make it easier for mid-sized challenger banks to launch and grow by relaxing rules on foreign ownership. Foreign bank subsidiaries with less than $8 billion in equity will no longer need to publicly list a portion of their shares if their parent is a public company. Banks will need to be widely publicly held once they reach $25 billion in equity, up from $12 million.

All aboard: While the budget was short on updates about open banking, it confirms another long-awaited framework—the Real-Time Rail instant payments system—is launching on Monday. The system will launch in waves, with all banks that are required to participate but weren’t ready in time for the first phase joining the system sometime in 2027. The Big Six banks likely won’t be part of the first wave, BetaKit has reported.

Stablecoin plot twist: Banks and other federally regulated financial institutions won’t be allowed to directly issue stablecoins, crypto tokens pegged to the value of a central bank-issued currency, the budget announces. Instead, they will have to issue them through a non-bank subsidiary, which will be overseen by the Bank of Canada. A U.S. dollar stablecoin that a consortium of banks, including TD and Scotiabank, plans to launch is likely in the clear under the new rule, since it will be issued by a new company. The fate of CADD, a stablecoin backed by National Bank and issued by Alberta trust company Tetra Trust, is less clear.

Consumers off the hook for fraud: Customers won’t be liable for fraud resulting from someone accessing their bank account without authorization, the budget announces. Currently, the Bank Act caps consumer liability at $50 if the fraud occurred through a credit card transaction, but there’s no federal consumer legal protection for fraud that takes place by other means. The liability cap won’t apply in cases of “gross negligence.”

A new sheriff in town: The Financial Crimes Agency (FCA), a forthcoming new federal agency tasked with fighting serious financial offences, will start operations in the fall of 2027, according to the budget. In the spring economic update, the Liberals announced the agency will receive $352.7 million over the next five years, with additional funds going to other government departments involved in creating it. The FCA is part of the government’s efforts to reverse Canada’s reputation as soft on white-collar crime.

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