In Colombia, the implementation of the open finance mechanism has been announced, a system that seeks to ensure that interacting participants have access to and standardized supply of personal data that rests in financial entities. This would occur with prior authorization from the data owner.
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According to information from the Financial Superintendency of Colombia (SFC), this strategy will be implemented in order to promote inclusion, innovation and competition in the financial system.
Therefore, a draft decree that provides the guidelines to be able to implement this new system was released for comments until January 31, 2025.
According to information from the National Government, this new financial instrument will seek to promote financial inclusion, competition and innovation in the financial system, the financial well-being of the population, the interoperability of the system, seeks to ensure the protection and rights and interests of the holders and the security, transparency and trust of the financial system.
What will happen to people’s data?
One of the great concerns that users of the financial system in Colombia have has to do with the principles that this new instrument will impose, mainly because it will handle the sensitive data found in the different entities.
With the above, this draft decree proposes seven principles, the first one that relates is access to data, which will be the exclusive power that the owner will have when authorizing third party recipients of data to access and process personal data in the open finance system.
Meanwhile, this open finance system must have clear, sufficient and timely information that allows it to identify its participants, the personal data that will be circulated, its access mechanisms and the consents granted.
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In turn, he related that these data must be protected through robust information security and cybersecurity mechanisms that prevent unauthorized consultation or use. Furthermore, these must be accurate, complete, updated and relevant to fulfill the objectives set out in this title.
A principle of non-discriminatory treatment is proposed, which provides for access and provision of personal data in the open finance system, which must be provided on equal terms for all third-party data recipients, access service providers. and payment initiators.
Interoperability is sought in the automatic exchange of information that will be implemented by the participants of the open finance system, which will be governed by common standards that allow efficient, secure and transparent interaction and finally the third party data recipients that store the information of the Users of the financial system must participate as data providers in the open finance system.
It is worth mentioning that within the information contemplated in this standard it is found that the scope of the open finance system will include the circulation of information and the provision of this service under some conditions:
When the related information of the owner is about the use and linking of financial services, including, among others, deposit, credit, insurance and investment products. The scope of open finance includes information on the general characteristics of the financial products and services offered by financial entities and the payment initiation service.
It is worth mentioning that the information on the use of demand deposit products must include, at a minimum, the transactional history of the last twelve months counted from the access request.
Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.
Photo: CEET – Néstor Gómez
How will the information be processed?
The information included in this regulation includes the processing of the information since it will depend mainly on the data providers, the third party recipients and finally on the access service providers, which must implement automatic information exchange protocols to attend to or carry out requests for access and provision of personal data, prior authorization of the owner, in an expeditious, safe and standardized manner.
It is also regulated that banking establishments must allow authorized access to information within a maximum period of six months from the issuance of the standard defined by the governance scheme for each category of information.
It highlights that other data providers must allow authorized access to the information in a maximum period of 12 months counted from the issuance of the standard defined by the governance scheme for each category of information.
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Meanwhile, the Financial Superintendence of Colombia may define a shorter period for the adoption of the standards by the data providers subject to its supervision.
Will there be a charge for access to this information?
In this context, it is highlighted that this open finance strategy will generate a certain cost for third parties who wish to have this financial data of the different users of the system.
Therefore, data providers will be able to charge access fees aimed at remunerating only the cost incurred to enable the exchange of personal data in the open finance system.
“Access rates must be set based on objective, measurable and verifiable factors that guarantee that they do not seek to limit the access of third-party data recipients. In any case, data providers must consider the expected volume of queries and the income received for this concept in previous periods when setting access rates.” highlights the document.
LEIDY RUIZ
Portfolio Journalist
