As Canada works on making an open banking framework, a new poll shows that the public needs to be made more aware of the idea since most people don’t know about it.
Deloitte did a survey to find out how much people know about the problem and how they feel about it. The Canadian government is currently working on a framework that would allow people to share their bank data with third parties.
Only 18% of the people who were asked knew what open banking was, but 35% of people between the ages of 18 and 34 did. In the same way, only 11% of those who answered had heard of screen scraping.
But Canadians’ desire to use open banking is not affected by how much they know about it. In fact, more people (13%) have shared or sent information from their main financial institution to another than know about screen scraping.
Only 35% of Canadians feel safe sharing personal information online. But when told that their permission is one of the most important parts of open banking, 45% said they would feel safe using it to share their financial information online once the framework is in place.
When asked who owns the information about their bank accounts, 48% said they did, while 27% said it belonged to their bank. The rest, 25%, did not know.
When asked what the best thing about open banking is, 37% say being able to see the whole financial picture, 33% say being able to track spending habits, and 32% say being able to get advice on how to invest and save.
Of the 66% who see benefits, 52% are most interested in getting lower interest rates on loans and higher interest rates on savings, while 41% are most interested in getting the best product choices based on how they spend their money.
Deloitte says that for firms and officials to get the most out of open banking, they should focus on spreading the word, making sure features meet the needs of customers, making sure they target a wide range of users, and being open about security measures.
Concludes Deloitte: “Canadians are ready to take advantage of open banking. In fact, many already feel comfortable with the proposed model and see the value in it.”
