Australia's big banks have been ordered to help fintechs get their foot in the door | Business Insider

"Australia’s four major banks have agreed, with some concerns over security, to allow open access to customer data.

A parliamentary inquiry has recommended that the banks be forced to give access to customer data to help fintechs now pushing against the market share of the banks.

The CEOs of the big four banks were questioned this week for a second time in the House of Representatives Economics Standing Committee hearings in Canberra.

In general, the CEOs have come to the realisation that disruption by fintechs is inevitable and many of them have invested in the sector.

However, the issue they worry about is data breaches and possible large scale identity theft. One banks says it comes under cyber attack on average every four minutes.

The parliamentary committee has recommended that the law be changed to have penalties against the banks if they don’t open their data vaults by July 2018.

However, the banks think the timeline might be a little optimistic, given the security issues. They want to see a phased implementation."