ING Bank fined for allegedly missing CDR deadlines

ING Bank has paid the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) $53,280 in penalties for alleged missing deadlines related to the consumer data right (CDR).

The mandated government scheme across both the banking and energy sectors is designed to enable consumers to control and use the data businesses hold about them for their own benefit.

The ACCC claimed ING Bank missed three deadlines and misled consumers through a statement on its website about the reliability and security of its CDR service. The statement has since been removed.

ING Bank became listed as a data holder on December 1 this year and is yet to be listed as an accredited data recipient.

The ACCC alleged ING Bank missed some deadlines for making consumer data shareable by nine or 10 months. It also allegedly did not meet a more recent deadline for sharing data about joint accounts.

An ING spokesperson told iTnews the bank has “approached the delivery of this program with the best of intentions for Australian bank customers”.

“However, in more recent times our delivery commitments were delayed mostly due to an unforeseen technical compatibility issue that became apparent as the open banking regime requirements evolved.

“This issue has now been resolved.”

The ING spokesperson added the penalties have been paid however, “not resolving the compatibility issue would have jeopardised our ability to transfer customer data to the open banking ecosystem in a safe and secure manner.”

“This is not something we were prepared to compromise on, even if it meant falling behind on delivery timelines.”

The spokesperson added it will continue to “cooperate with the ACCC and we have a plan in place to deliver the remaining open banking functionality in 2023.”

Deadlines and compliance

Last year iTnews reported nearly one in three Australian mid-tier credit unions, building societies and other institutions weren’t open banking and CDR compliant, while others were compliant on paper but had systems that did not actually work.

Resource capacity and technical challenges with implementing Australia’s complex open banking regime were identified as key challenges.

The ACCC has a CDR Sandbox that is intended to assist banks and companies to test if their systems meet open banking standards. 

The free service allows participants to test their own test data in mock trial solutions created by the ACCC or use to exchange test data with other scheme participants.