Macquarie Bank pilots open banking platform

Macquarie Bank will allow customers to securely share data with third parties' services, such as those run by fintechs, using a new “open banking platform”.

The bank today claimed it was the "first in Australia” to create and launch such a platform, which allows third parties to interact with data stored in Macquarie’s core transactional systems via APIs.

The open banking platform is currently in pilot and will be made available “more broadly in the coming months”.

Providers wanting to interconnect with Macquarie must meet the bank’s “open platform standards and security criteria”.

The bank has also created a developer portal and test sandbox called devXchange where hopefuls can trial products before opening them up to Macquarie’s customers.

Ben Perham, Macquarie’s banking and financial services group head of personal banking, said in a statement that customers now have the option to “securely connect their information into their favourite accounting software, budgeting app and other innovative services they’re interested in”.

“While consumers typically need to reveal their banking login details to use budgeting tools and similar services, Macquarie’s open platform means customers will never need to give their login details to a third party, creating a more secure way to access these services,” Perham said.

“Macquarie’s open platform also gives customers the power to manage access to their data in real time through the Macquarie banking app.

“Authorised third-party providers will have read-only access to that customer’s data through a secure token, which then reads the data from Macquarie’s systems," Perham added.

The open banking platform is built on top of an SAP core banking system and also uses OAuth 2.0 to manage secure authorisation, according to a report by the Australian Financial Review.

Macquarie’s move comes after the government used its most recent federal budget to commit to introducing an open banking regime in Australia.

It is currently assessing appropriate models and roadmaps to get the banking sector onboard.

Submissions to that process close at the end of this week, and a report is expected by the end of the year.

“The government will introduce an open banking regime that will increase access to banking product and consumer data by consumers and third parties, if the consumer consents,” it said in a statement in May.

“This will empower consumers to seek out banking products better suited to their needs and create further opportunities for innovative business models in banking that enhance competition.”

The government said it was following the lead of other international jurisdictions such as the UK, EU and Singapore, which are all taking steps towards enabling open banking.