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Delivering Business Value via the Consumer Data Right
5 min read
“Biza.io’s turnkey solution enabled Regional Australia Bank to become CDR compliant in a mere three months. Without it, the process of becoming compliant would have been way more costly and taken many more months, and would have delayed our participation in this exciting ecosystem. We wanted to demonstrate the capability of customer-owned banks, and highlight the benefit that CDR brings to Australian consumers. Biza’s deep industry expertise, quickly adaptable Data-Holder-as-a-Service (HaaS), and innovative approach has enabled this. Their commitment, attention to detail and the quality of their work is simply outstanding, we are so delighted with this outcome.”
Regional Australia Bank became CDR compliant with Biza.io’s turnkey solution in a mere three months, enabling participation in information sharing alongside the Big Four banks through the new open banking system.
Regional Australia Bank is a customer-owned bank that has been helping regional Australians achieve their lifestyle goals for over 50 years. With roots in regional NSW and head office located in Armidale, it has grown to be one of the premier banking alternatives to the ‘Big Four’ banks.
Regional Australia Bank pledges more than 5% of its profits back into grassroots community initiatives.
In November 2017, the Australian Government introduced the Consumer Data Right (CDR) in Australia to facilitate Open Banking initiatives. The CDR was created to give consumers greater access to and control over their data and encourage competition and innovation in the banking sector.
When starting the journey to become CDR compliant, Regional Australia Bank, along with the rest of the banking industry, wasn’t faced with any attractive options. The data requirements and developer manpower involved in making its existing infrastructure compliant was an almost insurmountable task, and many of the existing core banking vendors didn’t have the kind of CDR expertise required to provide simple, affordable solutions.
Regional Australia Bank was not prepared to pay millions of dollars to become CDR compliant over a period of 9-12 months
Regional Australia Bank saw an opportunity to use the CDR as more than a compliance project and decided to be the first of the non-Big 4 banks to deliver CDR to their customer base. However, to meet the CDR requirements, it would need specific enhancements to the core banking solution and its vendor was unable to commit to a solution in the desired timeframe.
Rob Hale, RAB’s Chief Digital Officer, had observed Biza’s founder and CEO, Stuart Low, as the most prominent contributor to the CDR specification. Impressed by Stuart’s knowledge and command of the CDR, he contacted Stuart to discuss Biza’s plans to deliver a solution for Data Holders.
The development of Biza’s Holder-as-a-Service solution was collaborative, as the RAB team worked closely with Stuart to deliver a compliant, yet flexible solution. In particular, no libraries or products met the specific InfoSec requirements of the CDR with its modifications to the international open standards. Stuart wrote a complete InfoSec server that implemented both the international FAPI standard and the CDR-specific requirements to deliver this functionality.
Biza.io’s Holder-as-a-Service provides data holders with a complete CDR platform that acts as a proxy to core banking data. This meant Regional Australia Bank didn’t need to upgrade its own systems, and could instead deliver the CDR APIs, user consent and information security requirements with Biza.io via its turnkey solution.
Regional Australia Bank used Biza’s data adapter APIs to develop an integration into their core banking data store.
By partnering with Biza.io, Regional Australia Bank achieved a successful and fully compliant data holder implementation months ahead of ACCC-mandated timeframes. The integration and deployment took a mere 90 days to complete — months ahead of the average data holder in the CDR.
The Big 4 banks spent tens of millions of dollars, with large teams working for more than 18 months, to deliver their CDR solutions. In comparison, the RAB and Biza project took only three months, with a team of five people, and cost a fraction of what its larger competitors spent.
Biza’s innovative platform meant Regional Australia Bank was able to purchase an off-the-shelf solution that allowed it to focus its resources on developing and delivering its own products to customers.
Regional Australia Bank’s customers can now benefit from greater transparency and control over their banking data, with faster and more convenient access to financial services. It has allowed the bank to become more competitive against the big four and provided a greater capacity for innovation.