The Competition Bureau of Canada’s report on data portability positions switching and consumer savings as the primary outcomes, particularly in insurance. This article explores why that framing is only the beginning, and how, when treated as platform infrastructure, data portability can unlock ecosystem participation, operational efficiency, and new value creation across financial services and beyond.

For decades, banks and credit unions have operated as linear pipelines. But as behaviour shifts into platform ecosystems, value creation is moving from chains to networks.

Money itself is a story of convenience and people don’t stay loyal to ‘channels’, they think about getting things done, and throughout financial history that means showing up where life happens. 

The future of Credit Union member acquisition is invisible and effortless. By adopting Embedded Finance and leveraging Open Data to establish FDX-compliant partnerships, CUs can move from reactive selling to proactive, seamless service—a world where the next generation walks in with their coffee, not their paperwork.

For credit union executives and strategic leaders in the credit union system, the natural next question is the most important one: How do we get there, leveraging open data, without multi-year, multi-million-dollar IT projects? 

Canada's financial services are set for a major transformation. Budget 2025 has laid out the most concrete details yet, committing to a complete and accelerated rollout of Consumer-Driven Banking (CDB)—a term for Canada's Open Banking.

3 hot topics that dominated conversations at Money20/20 Vegas after the lights went down.