Open Banking

Easily and securely share your banking information with organisations that you trust.

What is Open Banking?

Open Banking gives you, as a St.George customer, the ability to share your banking data with other parties you trust, including other banks, online.

What is the Consumer Data Right?

The Consumer Data Right is a law which provides eligible individuals or organisations with the right to request access to generic data relating to banking products and services that we offer (product reference data), as well as share data about eligible products and services that relate to you as an individual or organisation (consumer data).

The Consumer Data Right puts control of your data in your hands. In relation to the banking sector, the Consumer Data Right is referred to as “Open Banking”.

What's New for Open Banking?

On 4 August 2022, St.George commenced the implementation of data sharing for joint accounts held by individual customers.

Key changes:

1. St.George will enable all eligible joint accounts for data sharing, consistent with the Consumer Data Right rules and obligations.

2. When a joint account is ‘enabled’ for data sharing, any account holder can authorise consent to data sharing with an Accredited Data Recipient (ADR). When the joint account is ‘enabled’, any Open Banking data sharing authorisations created by one account holder are taken to have been pre-approved by all account holders. This means that any joint account holder can authorise St.George to share data on the joint account with an ADR, without requiring further approval from any other joint account holder, when St.George receives a valid data sharing request from an ADR in respect of that joint account. This is despite any existing banking authorities that apply to the joint account (e.g., 'more than one to sign', etc).

3. Any joint account holder can at any time view the joint account's data sharing option or change it to disabled at any time through the online consent dashboard in Internet Banking. Once the data sharing is set to disabled:

(a) data sharing will cease for the joint account with respect to any existing data sharing authorisations;

(b) no joint account holder will be able to share data from that account;

(c) any subsequent request made on the online consent dashboard in Internet Banking to enable data sharing on the joint account will need to be approved by all joint account holders within a specified period of time.

Joint account holders will always be notified whenever the data sharing status of the joint account changes.

Check the updated List of Accounts (PDF 86KB), to see which account products are currently eligible for Open Banking.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did Open Banking launch?

On 1 October 2020 St.George commenced data sharing for product reference data via our public Open Banking Product API. The number of products available for product reference data sharing expanded on 1 February 2021 and again on 1 July 2021, in line with the Government’s phased implementation of the Open Banking regulations. Product reference data can be used by third parties to make comparisons of products and prices across the market.

On 1 July 2021 St.George commenced consumer data sharing, allowing eligible customers to share their data for in-scope products with Accredited Data Recipients (ADRs). Data sharing has been enabled for savings and transaction accounts, credit and debit cards, mortgages and personal loan accounts, some business loans, lines of credit, overdrafts, foreign currency accounts and cash management accounts for individual account holders. Consumer data sharing gives consumers greater access to and control over their data and may improve consumers’ ability to compare and switch between products and services.

Why is Open Banking good for customers?

One of the purposes of Open Banking is to increase competition across financial services and potentially allow customers to negotiate better deals and save money. Open Banking means that you will be able to share your data with Accredited Data Recipients (ADRs). This will give you access to products and services offered by ADRs that may suit your needs.

Is Open Banking secure?

St.George is committed to ensuring that your data is safe including via Open Banking. Customers who want to use Open Banking will need to be registered for Internet Banking.

Accredited Data Recipients (ADRs) who are providing products or services under Open Banking must comply with privacy and security requirements and be accredited by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Can I opt out of Open Banking?

It is entirely your choice if you wish to use Open Banking. Open Banking requires you to be registered for internet banking to authorise data sharing with an ADR. You will use your Customer Access Number (CAN) and a One Time Password, through Secure Code, to authorise any sharing of information. If you change your mind you can revoke your authorisation to share data with ADRs at any time using your data sharing dashboard accessed through your Internet Banking.

Why would I ask for my data to be shared?

You may ask us to share your St.George consumer data, or other consumer data you have given us permission to collect, in order to get a banking product or service from another organisation, such as another bank.

For example, if you apply for a loan with another bank and they request to see data on your St.George savings account as part of their assessment, you can give us permission to share your St.George consumer data relating to that savings account with them if they are accredited to receive data by the ACCC.

How do I grant consent for St.George to share my data?

To start the consent process, you will need to visit the Open Banking consent portal of the Accredited Data Recipient (ADR) you wish us to share your data with. This ADR may be another bank or fintech. Once you have granted your consent to the ADR to collect data on your behalf through their consent portal, you will be connected to St.George, where we will ask you to authorise us to share your data with the ADR.

Will my consumer data only be shared with my consent?

Under the Consumer Data Right, we will only share your St.George consumer data with another organisation if you give us permission to do so.

You can use your data sharing dashboard in Internet Banking to track all the permissions you have given to us to share your data. We will always notify you via the data sharing dashboard as soon as practicable after sharing your data.

Can I cancel my consent?

Can I view or manage my consent?

How long does my consent remain active?

When creating your consent, you can select how long you would like it to stay active. A consent may be for a one time share or you may select a period of up to 12 months. The maximum time limit for consent to remain active is 12 months, before it will expire. If you would like to continue sharing data once it has expired, you will need to create a new consent.

You may choose to create more than one consent or different consents for different accounts, depending on the information you wish to share and the length of consent you would like to give.

Some Accredited Data Recipients (ADRs) may also allow you to amend an active consent on your data sharing accounts. By visiting the ADR’s app, you may have the option to extend a consent or change the accounts within the consent. This can only be activated through the ADR.

Can I share data from my joint accounts?

Yes, on 4 August 2022, St.George commenced the implementation of joint account data sharing:

St.George will enable all eligible joint accounts for data sharing, consistent with the Consumer Data Right rules and obligations.
When a joint account is ‘enabled’ for data sharing, any account holder can to authorise consent to data sharing with an Accredited Data Recipient (ADR). When the joint account is ‘enabled’, any Open Banking data sharing authorisations created by one account holder are taken to have been pre-approved by all account holders. This means that any joint account holder can authorise St.George to share data on the joint account with an Accredited Data Recipient (ADR), without requiring further approval from any other joint account holder, when St.George receives a valid data sharing request from an ADR in respect of that joint account. This is despite any existing banking authorities that apply to the joint account (e.g., 'more than one to sign', etc).
Any joint account holder can at any time view the joint account's data sharing option or change it to disabled at any time through the online consent dashboard in Internet Banking. Once the data sharing is set to disabled:

(a) data sharing will cease for the joint account with respect to any existing data sharing authorisations;

(b) no joint account holder will be able to share data from that account;

Joint account holders will always be notified whenever the data sharing status of the joint account changes.

I’m a customer with another bank. How do I put a request in to have St.George receive my available Open Banking data?

Westpac Group has been approved by the ACCC as an Accredited Data Recipient under the Consumer Data Right/ Open Banking. At this stage St.George is not receiving Open Banking data from other banks. Ultimately Open Banking should result in customers getting better access to products that meet their needs. We are excited about the possibilities from Open Banking and over time we expect to allow customers to use Open Banking to more easily bring their banking data from other banks to St.George. In the meantime, your St.George banker is able to discuss suitable products with you and assist with data required from other financial institutions to support your needs.

Is there a process a potential new customer could take to have their data brought over to St.George?

Consumer Data Right (CDR) Policy

St.George is a member of the Westpac Group. The Westpac Group CDR Policy provides information about how St.George manages data under the Consumer Data Right.

Consumer Data Right (CDR) Policy (PDF 1MB)

List of Accounts

This document provides a list of all St.George accounts eligible for data sharing through Open Banking.

List of Accounts (PDF 86KB)

Self-reported implementation gaps we’re rectifying

To learn more about our implementation gaps, please see the table below:

	Issue Description	Proposed Resolution Date	Current Status
1	Customer Experience (CX) Language Alignment: Updating the data cluster language used during customer authorisation process to align with Data Language Standards for Banking Accounts. The text ‘Whom money is sent to/and or received from’ that is currently displayed to customer will be updated to ‘Who you have sent money to and received money from’, when a customer is confirming the data sharing of transaction details.	1 November 2022	In Progress

To see the implementation gaps for Westpac Group, please check the ACCC CDR rectification schedule (under the section Major Data Holders, for Westpac).