BOQ issued infringement notice for CDR delays

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has issued an infringement notice to the Bank of Queensland (BOQ) – believed to be around $132,000 – for allegedly failing to meet its open banking compliance obligations.

It is the first infringement notice sent to a lender for non-compliance with the consumer data right (CDR) regime – which has been in being for the past two years.

An ACCC spokesperson confirmed to Mortgage Business that it had issued an infringement notice to BOQ for “alleged non-compliance with the CDR Rules”. 

It added that further details of the issue would be released “if Bank of Queensland pays the Infringement Notice”.

Delays and rectifications

Non-major banks, including BOQ, have been required to share data under the scheme since 1 July 2021. 

However, several lenders have experienced delays in setting up their systems to meet the high standards demanded by consumer data right. 

At the time of writing, around 30 lenders have self-reported potential implementation gaps in their consumer data-sharing systems – including both major banks, non-major banks and non-banks.

Among them is BOQ, which has acknowledged that it was delayed in implementing the first phase of the consumer data right (open banking) regime.

The bank had missed the 1 July 2021 deadline for sharing banking data from personal accounts, as well as the November 2021 deadline for sharing home loan and personal loan data, and worked with the ACCC on a rectification schedule.

A BOQ spokesperson told Mortgage Business: “The delay was largely due to the complexity of adapting BOQ source systems to the open banking requirements and third-party testing issues.

“Those issues have now been addressed and BOQ commenced data sharing from 13 December 2021.”

According to the ACCC website, BOQ’s rectification schedule outlined that it had to set up account data by 1 July 2022, and has until March 2023 to improve “data latency”.

The spokesperson continued: “BOQ is committed to selecting and implementing sustainable, quality solutions and look forward to providing the best quality data so that our customers can make informed decisions about their banking needs.”

Indeed, BOQ Group has been overhauling its whole banking system to become a digital bank – having partnered with global banking software platform Temenos.

In an update regarding its digital bank earlier this month, BOQ Group revealed that digital transformation was “key to building [its] competitive advantage”, and would help deliver lower costs, better efficiencies and increased capacity to scale.

[Related: ‘Democratising’ data: Assistant Treasurer celebrates non-majors’ CDR anniversary]