Who We Are
Open Finance Network of Canada (OFNC) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to bring together all stakeholders from across financial services to advocate for data rights for Canadian consumers and businesses while highlighting the benefits of Open Banking and Open Finance for Canada.
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We are a diverse group of Board Members and a neutral partner for the financial services industry in Canada, helping to educate on the benefits of Open Banking and Open Finance. As we believe they can be a force for good for Canadian consumers and SMEs.
What Is Open Finance?
Open Finance is the next step beyond Open Banking, enabling access and sharing of consumer data to even more financial products and services — not just banking. Building on Open Banking, Open Finance is about simplifying sharing of more layers of data to enable new financial applications. Allowing people to connect information from various services provides opportunities for more holistic and personalized offerings.
Thanks to this evolution toward Open Finance, data from multiple sources beyond banking can help build innovative and more inclusive financial services. This includes financial data from digital players like big tech companies, fintechs, or gig economy platforms, as well as traditional entities like fiscal institutions, insurance issuers, retailers, or even utility providers like electricity companies.
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Open Finance enables everyone to access and act on financial data to:
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Make intelligent decisions through data insights
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Build personalized experiences
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Enable new business models
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Support financial wellness
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Canadian
Consumers
With the freedom and flexibility that Open Finance enables, consumers have more choice and control over the data they share and how they engage with their finances. Gaining unparalleled access to a broader range of products and services.
Financial Institutions
Open Finance enables a more secure way for financial institutions to enable consumers to share their financial data with third parties — and a more complete picture of their customer’s finances. As a result, financial institutions can collaborate with various providers to deliver a wider variety of services to their customers based on consumer data, uncovering new business models and innovations.
FinTech
Companies
With secure and reliable connections powered by Open Finance, fintechs can deliver products uniquely designed to meet consumer needs. Fintechs and other third parties gain a broader and more accurate basis upon which to create consumer-centric financial technologies outside of the financial institution.
Canadian
Government
Open Finance provides governments with a framework in which Canadian values and rights and privacy are safeguarded within a changing digital economy.
Small Businesses
Open Finance offers Canadian small businesses more choices, control and security. It also offers the opportunity to access innovative tools to help them grow in a digital age.
The Canadian
Economy
Open Finance could potentially result in a review of the corporate taxes payable by the finance sector, increasing government revenue that will ultimately flow down to Canadians.
OFNC & OBIC Insight Series
Hear from OFNC Members
Become an OFNC Member
Our membership is both broad and inclusive, including FinTechs, financial institutions, paytechs, regtechs, emerging industries and international thought leaders. OFNC membership offers each of these groups first-mover status in what will soon be a revolutionary change in the financial services industry. Additional benefits offered have been designed to deepen each members’ engagement and sphere of influence in Canada’s evolving open finance arena.
OFNC's Manifesto for Open Banking
Open banking is a global movement to empower consumers with control over their financial data. This control gives consumers freedom to share their personal data with third-party companies that can then use that data to provide alternative financial services that make it easier for consumers to move, manage and control their money. This will in turn provide them with greater choice, control and personalized financial services. The concept of open banking is also referenced as Consumer Directed Finance (CDF) in Canada, a suggestion made by the Department of Finance after the first public consultation in January 2019.