Open banking will modernize Canada’s financial services sector with a digital infrastructure enabling consumers to easily transfer their bank data to third parties, thus paving the way for greater consumer choice in terms of financial services.
That being said, financial data connectivity — a core function of the open banking infrastructure — already exists in Canada.
Using a technology known as “screen scraping”, it currently powers hundreds of businesses servicing 3.5 to 4 million Canadians, over 15% of the country's adult population — and adoption is on the rise.
This white paper examines the claims against screen scraping, and in doing so provides a more balanced account of this technology and the role it plays in Canada.
We hope to show that open banking needs to expand on the current benefits of screen scraping as much as it needs to overcome its shortcomings.
Key takeaways
- Screen scraping currently serves a significant purpose in Canada
- The fact that connectivity currently relies on screen scraping doesn’t pose a particularly new or significant security risk — quite the opposite
- Focusing on screen scraping is a waste of energy — and more importantly, a waste of time
- Open banking is not defined by a specific technology, be it screen scraping or API
Read the white paper
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