An expansion of the consumer data right to the telecommunications, superannuation and insurance sectors has been paused and won’t be reassessed until the end of 2024.
A newsletter to industry, sent Friday by Treasury, said the decision was “in line with recommendations from the independent statutory review that further time is needed to allow the CDR to mature.”
The telecommunications sector itself had been angling for an extension to adopt the CDR, which so far applies to the banking and energy sectors, but has seen only limited use cases emerge.
The industry newsletter states that the CDR’s relative immaturity led the government to “[make] the decision to pause expansion into superannuation, insurance and telecommunications.”
“This will allow time to focus on ensuring that the CDR in banking is working as effectively as possible, extending into the non-bank lending sector and continuing with the energy rollout as planned,” Treasury stated.
“The government also plans to undertake a strategic assessment of the CDR towards the end of 2024 to inform future expansions, including superannuation, insurance and telecommunications, as well as the implementation of action initiation.”
Action initiation is a controversial addition to the CDR, allowing fintechs or other service providers to perform certain types of actions on a customer’s behalf, such as opening or closing an account.
Parts of the finance sector are concerned that it will enable the rise of ‘super apps’ by ‘big tech’ companies.
Under this model, a customer may never need to interact directly with a bank, and can manage their relationship at arm’s length.
Treasury said the “expansion of the CDR to allow action initiation will continue to be progressed.”
“The assessment and development of a robust framework to support the future implementation of action initiation will occur in close consultation with stakeholders,” it added.
Treasury also noted it had received funding in this month's federal budget “to increase consumer awareness of the CDR by developing a trust brand strategy.”
“This will help consumers identify where they can access CDR-powered providers, products and services,” it said.
