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.