Open Banking Initiative Canada - A Force for Good

Open Banking is the corner stone for user rights, ownership of financial data, and consumer empowerment. Its important more than ever with the growing gig economy.

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Inspiration

Fintech Cadence is a Canadien think-tank dedicated to serving early-stage startups and building fintech products from the grassroots level. The organization conducted a Hackathon with multiple streams in 2021. My team, Team Mosaic, entered and took on the challenge Using Open-banking, how can we improve budgeting and services for those with irregular incomes? We landed in second place based on our UX research paper and presentation.

What is OBIC?

Open Banking Initiative Canada (OBIC) exists to develop a market-driven open banking framework in Canada to ensure consumer empowerment is possible in our country.

How we built it

We had two weeks to research and measure criteria that would inform our recommendations. When we talk about budgeting and services, we must speak about how important it is to personalize services. When we talk about engagement and its importance as the underpinning narrative, we must talk to government financial institutions and fintech. When we talk about individuals with irregular income, we specifically talk about a spectrum of individuals who span age, literacy and financial health.

Challenges we ran into

The challenge left a lot of room for interpretation, and when interviewing OBIC board members and other experts, it was clear this ambiguity was part of a deeper problem. Before tackling the main challenge, we would have to provide critical insights into this ambiguity.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Our team had never worked together before. We were focused, collaborative, complementary and good-spirited throughout the challenge. I was impressed by my teammates and inspired throughout the challenge.

What I learned

Before this challenge, I knew nothing about Open Banking and very little about FinTech and RegTech. It was eye-opening.

What's next for Open Banking Initiative Canada - A Force for Good

I hope to work with my teammates on future Hackathons. As for Open Banking, it is an exciting topic. However, our teams' conclusion and follow-up recommendations and OBICs goals and vision turned out incompatible. It will be fascinating to see how Open Banking is made a reality in Canada. Will Team Mosaic or OBIC end up picking the right path?

Built With

  • regtech
  • research
  • ux
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