Fintechs Canada has submitted a formal response to the Canadian Securities Administrators’ (CSA) recent discussion paper on data portability and e-KYC standards, cautioning against regulatory fragmentation and urging coordination with federal efforts on open banking.
In its submission, Fintechs Canada emphasizes the importance of a single, interoperable national standard already envisioned by the federal government to support seamless, secure, and cost-effective client-directed data sharing. The organization warns that the introduction of securities-specific standards risks duplicating efforts, increasing compliance costs, and undermining network effects essential to a thriving financial ecosystem.
“We support the CSA’s goal of building regulatory capacity for emerging digital business models,” said Alex Vronces, Executive Director of Fintechs Canada. “But regulatory capacity does not require regulatory duplication. The best way to support innovation and investor protection is by aligning with the federal framework rather than going it alone.”
The submission argues that any CSA-led rulemaking is premature, as key federal details—including legislation, technical standards, and guidance from the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada—have yet to be finalized. Fintechs Canada recommends that CSA regulators delay any new initiatives and instead commit to harmonizing with the forthcoming national regime.
The organization questions the value of a CSA-run live testing environment for data portability. “Client-directed data sharing has been happening via screen scraping for nearly a decade without systemic issues,” said Vronces. “With federal oversight imminent, duplicating that supervision now adds little value.”
Fintechs Canada welcomes the CSA’s engagement and looks forward to participating in future roundtables during Phase 2 of the consultation process.
The full submission is available here.
