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The conversation around open finance in Canada is entering a new phase.

After years of policy discussions, consultations, and framework development, the industry is increasingly focused on a more important question: how do we turn consumer-driven banking into tangible outcomes for Canadians and businesses?

During today's Canada Fintech Forum panel discussion, leaders from across the financial ecosystem explored how Canada can move from implementation to impact. While perspectives differed, several themes emerged.

Success Starts When Nobody Talks About Open Banking Anymore

One of the most consistent themes throughout the discussion was that success will not be defined by API volumes, accreditation numbers, or technical milestones.

Instead, success will be measured by customer outcomes.

Consumers should be able to access better services, switch providers more easily, and gain greater control over their financial lives without needing to understand the technology operating behind the scenes.

As financial services become increasingly connected, the goal is for open finance to become an invisible enabler rather than a standalone destination.

Canada Is Replacing an Existing Behaviour

A recurring insight during the session was that Canada is not introducing digital financial data sharing for the first time.

Millions of consumers already share financial data today, often through screen-scraping solutions.

The challenge now is not simply launching a new framework. It is creating a better, safer, and more trusted experience that encourages consumers and businesses to move to API-based data sharing.

Ultimately, adoption will depend on whether the new model delivers clear value without adding complexity.

Shared Infrastructure Can Support Greater Competition

One of the most important discussions focused on the relationship between infrastructure and competition.

For open finance to scale effectively, ecosystem participants need trusted mechanisms for identity, accreditation, interoperability, consent management, and secure data exchange.

These foundational capabilities are most effective when they operate as shared infrastructure that can be accessed across the ecosystem.

As Symcor President and CEO Holger Kormann noted:

"The differentiation model should start above the infrastructure layer."

This highlights an important principle. Industry participants do not need to compete by recreating the same foundational capabilities. Instead, competition can flourish through the products, services, experiences, and outcomes built on top of a trusted foundation.

A useful analogy raised during the discussion compared open finance infrastructure to airports.

Airlines compete vigorously for customers, but they do not each build their own airports. Shared infrastructure creates efficiency, scale, and interoperability while still allowing healthy competition throughout the market.

Consumer Trust Remains Essential

Open finance will ultimately succeed or fail based on consumer confidence.

Participants highlighted the importance of clear consent management, transparent data usage, strong security standards, and clearly defined liability throughout the ecosystem.

Consumers increasingly expect greater transparency regarding how their data is shared, who has access to it, and how permissions can be modified or revoked.

Building trust requires more than technical compliance. It requires creating experiences that are easy to understand and easy to use.

The Industry Must Avoid Friction

One of the more interesting discussions centred around usability.

While security and consumer protection remain critical, several panelists noted that excessive complexity could become an adoption barrier.

If the new experience becomes significantly more complicated than existing alternatives, consumers may simply stay with familiar solutions.

The challenge for the industry is to balance security, transparency, and convenience without introducing unnecessary friction.

The Next Evolution: From Data Sharing to Action

The panel also explored the transition from open banking to broader open finance capabilities.

While expanded access to financial data remains important, many participants agreed that future value will increasingly come from capabilities that allow consumers and businesses to act on that information.

Payment initiation, real-time payments, expanded consent frameworks, and new data sources all have the potential to create more seamless financial experiences.

The opportunity is not simply to move data more efficiently. It is to enable faster decisions, improved financial outcomes, and entirely new customer experiences.

Looking Ahead

Canada has a unique opportunity to learn from global markets while building a framework that reflects the needs of Canadian consumers, businesses, financial institutions, fintechs, and ecosystem partners.

The path forward will require collaboration across industry and government, continued focus on trust and interoperability, and a commitment to delivering meaningful outcomes for Canadians.

The conversations at this year's Canada Fintech Forum made one thing clear:

The future of open finance will not be defined by technology alone. It will be defined by the value the ecosystem creates for the people and businesses it serves.