Issue 58: CDR Summit 2025
It was great to attend the CDR Summit.
CDR: Building New Incentives for Data Holders
One of the conference’s most thought‑provoking sessions brought together:
Simon Burt – Head of Digital & Proposition Development, NGM Group
Chris Malcolm – Chief Data & Propositions Officer, P&N Group
Jacobe Parker – Chief Executive Officer, Fiskil
Rebecca Schot‑Guppy – Partner, IAG Firemark Ventures (moderator)
The panel zeroed in on a pressing issue: the rising cost of Consumer Data Right (CDR) compliance and its disproportionate impact on smaller data holders.
Key insights
Compliance spend is climbing while adoption remains flat
For many regional and mutual banks, CDR implementation budgets are being swallowed by incremental regulatory changes.
Despite this investment, customer uptake sits below 1 %, making it hard to justify further spend.
Feature updates are “death by a thousand cuts”
Minor amendments to CDR rules often require sizeable technology sprints.
Smaller institutions, already resource‑constrained, find their roadmaps dominated by mandatory tweaks rather than customer‑facing innovation.
A missed growth lever for challengers
Ironically, the institutions that stand to benefit most from the CDR, those looking to entice customers away from the “Big Four” are least able to capitalise on it.
Instead of leveraging CDR APIs to ingest rich banking histories, many are defaulting to screen‑scraping because it is cheaper, faster, and less entangled with the Privacy Safeguards.
Privacy complexity is a hidden deterrent
The panel agreed that the 13 CDR Privacy Safeguards, layered atop the existing Australian Privacy Principles, create a legal maze that discourages experimentation.
For startups like Fiskil, the compliance burden can overshadow the product opportunity.
Take‑aways
Without targeted regulatory relief or implementation support, the CDR risk‑reward equation remains skewed against smaller data holders.
A simplified privacy framework, or rely on the Privacy Act as is done in New Zealand, could unlock genuine competition by enabling challenger banks to compete better with the bigger players.
Until then, screen‑scraping will persist as the pragmatic (if imperfect) workaround, undermining the intent of Australia’s Open Banking reforms.
Bottom line: CDR was designed to level the playing field, but right now, the smallest players are paying the highest price to stay in the game.
Fiskil joins the AFIA
AFIA welcomes Fiskil as an associate member. Fiskil provides open-data infrastructure that helps banks, non-bank lenders, and fintechs unlock Consumer Data Right opportunities. Their fully managed Data Holder Solution offers compliant APIs, consent management, registry connectivity, and standards maintenance, easing engineering demands. Fiskil’s Banking API enables secure, real-time account access and insights, helping businesses deliver advanced customer experiences while turning regulatory complexity into a competitive advantage.
MOGOPLUS Raises $1.5m to Scale Agentic AI in Lending and Open Data Markets
MOGOPLUS has raised $1.5 million from London’s New Model Venture Capital Group to expand its agentic AI platform focused on open data markets and lending. The funding will help grow MOGOPLUS’s AI credit decisioning solutions, which automate lending workflows and reduce costs, currently used by major banks and lenders. The company plans to broaden its AI offerings beyond finance into sectors like telecommunications, insurance, and wealth. Both MOGOPLUS and New Model highlight the strong growth potential of AI agents, with the global market projected to grow from USD 7.84 billion in 2025 to USD 52.62 billion by 2035, driven by industry-specific adoption and specialised intelligent agents.
Article link: MOGOPLUS Raises $1.5m to Scale Agentic AI in Lending and Open Data Markets
Article link: Agentic AI data fintech MogoPlus banks $1.5 million
How NextGen is embracing broker feedback
NextGen conducted its first Industry Insights Report, surveying over 700 mortgage brokers to better understand how its ApplyOnline® lending platform is used and how it can improve. The survey revealed strong trust and engagement, with 94% of brokers using the platform monthly and 84% using integrated quality tools like NextGenID and eSign. Brokers provided feedback on areas for improvement, including system speed, user interface (especially for entering living expenses), error validation, and CRM integration to reduce duplicate data entry. NextGen is actively incorporating this feedback into platform updates.
The report also highlighted a gap in broker awareness of available training, with only 28% having participated despite frequent offerings. NextGen is addressing this by enhancing visibility of training resources and running webinars. Looking ahead, NextGen sees Open Banking evolving with consumers increasingly comfortable sharing data securely without giving out internet banking details, helping brokers maintain trusted relationships while streamlining processes.
Article link: How NextGen is embracing broker feedback
Experian and Stryd bring open banking solution to brokers
Experian has teamed up with fintech platform Stryd to launch a real‑time, CDR-powered loan‑matching tool for mortgage brokers. Live as of 9 July, the solution combines BankStatements.com.au’s bank‑transaction feeds (owned by Experian) with Stryd’s database of 2,000‑plus mortgage products across 85 brands. Brokers can now receive event‑driven alerts—such as shifts in cash‑flow, repayment behaviour, LVR or product competitiveness—instead of relying on annual loan reviews. The aim is to help brokers fulfil their Best Interests Duty by spotting refinancing triggers before borrowers feel financial stress, which is rising (Illion reports a 3.8 % jump in Australians at risk of default in H1 2025). With 25 % of brokers already using Open Banking and another 34 % planning to adopt it, Experian and Stryd position the tool as a post‑settlement retention weapon, delivering “more transparency, more intelligence, and more value across the full customer journey.”
Article link: Tech Experian and Stryd bring open banking solution to brokers
Equifax Australia to launch Equifax Open Score
Equifax Open Score aims to unlock fairer credit access for ‘credit-invisible’ Australians
Equifax Australia has partnered with Mastercard to launch Equifax Open Score, a new credit-insight solution designed to open up fairer access to credit for the estimated 2.5 million Australians who are credit invisible or hold thin credit files. Built on Mastercard’s accredited open finance platform and leveraging Australia’s Consumer Data Right, Open Score can incorporate permissioned alternative data—income, regular expenses, rental payments and more—alongside traditional credit information to build a fuller picture of a consumer’s financial behaviour.
“By tapping into alternative data, Open Score can uncover insights not available in traditional credit reports—especially powerful for credit-invisible consumers,” said Melanie Cochrane, CEO of Equifax Australia. The solution is intended to benefit both consumers and small business owners: empowering them to use their own data securely to improve financial literacy, manage budgets and make more informed borrowing decisions under Australia’s Open Banking framework.
Article link: Mastercard and Equifax launch Open Score to bridge credit gap for small business