ACCC delays non-major CDR obligations

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has announced the delay of Consumer Data Right obligations for non-major authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs), pushing back phase one of the consumer data sharing obligations for non-majors until 1 July 2021, and phase two until 1 November 2021.

This decision supercedes a previous announcement, made in April, that non-major ADIs would be provided a three-month exemption from their phase one data sharing obligations, which pushed back the implementation date from 1 July 2020 to 1 October 2020. 

The latest decision was reportedly made in light of recent industry feedback, as well as in recognition of the impact of COVID-19, according to the ACCC.

The decision is legitimised as an exemption under section s56GF of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, and reinstates the previous 12-month gap between mandatory compliance dates for major and non-major banks.

The ACCC believes this exemption will allow non-major ADIs “adequate time to build and test their systems” before they are obligated to begin sharing data. However, ADIs that wish to commence data sharing at an earlier date on a voluntary basis will be able to do so. 

This exemption also applies to the non-primary subsidiaries of the major banks.

Further, the ACCC has exempted both major banks and non-major ADIs from their direct-to-consumer data sharing obligations until 1 November 2021 and deferred reciprocal data holder obligations until 1 March 2021 (Phase 1) and 1 July 2021 (Phase 2).

“The ACCC is continuing to work towards sharing of live consumer data by major banks from 1 July 2020,” the regulator said.

“The Consumer Data Right remains an essential reform for Australia’s future digital economy, which will be important for our financial recovery following the COVID-19 crisis.”

[Related: ACCC launches CDR portal]