Consumer-Driven Banking: Scaling trust and confidence for Canada’s Open

As Canada prepares to move Consumer-Driven Banking from concept into reality, one question is rising to the top of industry discussions: how do you build trust at scale while enabling innovation? 

That was the focus of a Powerhouse Debate at Open Banking Expo Canada 2026, where leaders from banking, fintech and infrastructure explored how the ecosystem can support thousands of participants, maintain consumer protection, and unlock the growth promised by Open Banking.

The conversation made one thing clear. The technology may be ready, but trust frameworks will determine whether the system succeeds.

Trust must scale with the ecosystem

As the ecosystem expands, accreditation and oversight will become central to maintaining confidence.

Abraham Tachjian, chief regulatory affairs officer at Brim Financial

Abraham Tachjian, chief regulatory affairs officer at Brim Financial, emphasised that Canada’s approach has always been rooted in consumer empowerment, rather than market correction.

He pointed to early policy discussions dating back to 2017, when Open Banking first appeared in federal consultations, highlighting that the objective from the beginning was enabling consumers to control their financial data.

That focus shaped the framework’s core pillars, including accreditation, security requirements and liability rules designed to balance competition with innovation.

“Looking at the policy objectives of what we were trying to accomplish and building around that by keeping the consumer… empowerment in mind, we built the foundation of what eventually became the legislation that we have today,” Tachjian explained.  

The challenge now is ensuring those frameworks can operate effectively when participation expands beyond traditional financial institutions.

Accreditation and oversight will define trust

For the system to work, regulators must support potentially thousands of new participants, ranging from fintech startups to global payment providers. 

Eyal Sivan, general manager for North America at Ozone API, said Canada has historically prioritised safety and soundness in its financial system, which has shaped the design of its Consumer-Driven Banking framework.

Early discussions were heavily focused on risk reduction, including addressing vulnerabilities created by screen scraping. Now, the industry is shifting toward enabling innovation and competition.

That shift will require clear operational frameworks, particularly around third-party risk management, monitoring ecosystem participants and ensuring they meet security and compliance requirements. 

 “When you’re creating an ecosystem based on an open standard where there’s a whole bunch of new players coming along, trying to build amazing things and work together, how do you know you can trust them?” Sivan said. “Do they have appropriate redress if something goes wrong?”

Panel moderator Jim Wadsworth, chief revenue officer…