November's federal budget is supposed to include the next legislative phase for open banking. If you're a Canadian fintech executive, you've heard this song before. The difference this time? Multiple sources, speaking to industry media under the condition of anonymity, say that government officials and lobby groups are telling them it's real. Phase 2 legislation (covering common rules and accreditation frameworks) is apparently ready for its debut on Nov. 4.
Canada announced its first open banking review in the 2018 federal budget. That's seven years of consultations, advisory committees, working groups, czar appointments, and enough promises to fill a politician's memoir. In 2021, when the advisory committee recommended the system would be operational by January 2023, industry leaders probably thought they were close. They weren't. The 2024 budget finally introduced the Consumer-Driven Banking Act, but the Fall Economic Statement that same year pushed the actual launch to 2026.
That's not progress. That's a masterclass in bureaucratic delay.
Open banking is a straightforward technical definition: a secure system that lets consumers share their financial data with third parties and switch between financial service providers. The practical impact is bigger. Right now, millions of Canadians unknowingly participate in something called screen scraping; a practice where you hand over your online banking username and password to access financial data. Research from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada found that 86% of Canadians would reject screen scraping if they understood how it works. Only 9% of Canadians even know what open banking is.
This isn't just about consumer awareness. It's about competition. A handful of large institutions dominate Canada's banking sector, and switching costs are high enough to keep most people locked in. Open banking creates actual competitive pressure by making it easier for fintechs to offer alternative products, better rates, and innovative services. Countries like the UK have already proven this works; their open banking implementation catalyzed a wave of fintech innovation and forced traditional banks to improve their offerings.
The budget is also expected to include language around stablecoins, which are digital assets pegged to traditional currencies like the US dollar. This matters because Canada's central bank has explicitly called for federal stablecoin regulation. In September, Ron Morrow, the Bank of Canada's executive director of payments, warned that Canada needs to act quickly or risk being left behind as other countries establish frameworks.
The irony is thick. While global markets increasingly use stablecoins for payments and cross-border transfers, Canadian securities regulators have treated them as securities—a classification that most industry experts argue fundamentally misunderstands how stablecoins function. Circle, the issuer of USDC, became the first stablecoin company to file an undertaking with Canadian regulators in December 2024. Still, the regulatory friction has already driven several crypto exchanges out of the Canadian market entirely.
Prime Minister Mark Carney's election in spring 2025 injected some optimism into the fintech community. As Governor of the Bank of England, Carney helped modernize the UK's payments system and oversaw the implementation of open banking there. He knows how this works. He also sat on Stripe's board, which suggests he understands fintech from the inside.
But optimism isn't the same as action. Fintech leaders interviewed after Carney's election expressed cautious hope while acknowledging that open banking might not be his top priority. Trade tensions with the United States, economic uncertainty, and a minority government all compete for attention. The question isn't whether Carney understands the issues, it's whether he can prioritize them.
If the November budget delivers meaningful legislation, Canada enters 2026 with a real shot at launching open banking. But implementation requires more than parliamentary approval. Technical standards need finalization. Accreditation processes need completion. Liability frameworks for fraud and system outages need clarity. Banks need time to build APIs and integrate systems. All of this has to happen in 2025 for a 2026 launch to be credible.
Canada is racing against two clocks: global competitiveness and domestic patience. The UK launched open banking in 2018, and Australia followed. The European Union implemented PSD2, and even emerging markets have moved faster than Canada. Meanwhile, Canadian fintech companies watch talent and capital flow to jurisdictions with clearer regulatory frameworks and faster timelines.
November's budget represents a fork in the road. Either Canada finally delivers on seven years of promises and joins the modern financial infrastructure club, or it adds another chapter to the longest regulatory saga in fintech history. For banking executives and fintech leaders, the implications are clear: prepare for 2026, but don't bet the farm on it. Build contingency plans. Maintain pressure on regulators. And maybe (just maybe) by this time next year, Canada will have an open banking system that actually works.
The real question: will we still be having this conversation in 2026?