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Speaking on the latest episode of Business Accelerator, Broker Essentials founder and broker coach Jason Back said many brokers continue to view open banking as simply another piece of technology, when its real value lies in giving them more time to spend with clients and less time chasing paperwork.
Back’s comments come as Australia’s Consumer Data Right (CDR) continues to expand. Earlier this month, eligible non-bank lenders were required to begin sharing product data through the regime, with customer data sharing obligations set to commence later this year, broadening the scope of open banking across the lending market.
“The consumer doesn’t wake up wanting open banking. They want an easier mortgage experience, or they want an easier credit card experience or an easier car loan experience,” Back said.
“We’re thinking this is all about technology when in fact it’s time.”
What brokers stand to gain
Back said open banking had the potential to fundamentally change how brokers worked with clients by reducing the administrative burden that has long dominated the loan application process.
Rather than repeatedly requesting payslips, bank statements and transaction histories, he said brokers could spend more time understanding a client’s broader financial position and helping them make better decisions.
“One of the biggest consumers of broker time is the missing information request,” Back said.
He said the long-term opportunity was for brokers to walk into meetings with verified financial information already available, allowing conversations to focus on strategy rather than administration.
“It becomes a strategy meeting, not a paperwork warfare meeting,” Back said.
Back argued this represented an opportunity for brokers to further evolve into trusted advisers.
“The intrinsic value of what our industry should be looking at is not processing loans. That’s the outcome of the value through the advice, through the service proposition, through the relationship, through the guidance that they give,” he said.
Why brokers have struggled with take-up
Despite the potential benefits, adoption has remained relatively low.
According to NextGen’s 2025 Industry Insights Report, released in June last year in partnership with Agile Market Intelligence, just 18 per cent of brokers were using open banking functionality within ApplyOnline, despite 94 per cent using the platform every month.
The report also found 61 per cent of brokers were unaware the capability was available, while 64 per cent continued relying on traditional document collection methods and 76 per cent primarily sourced customer information through screen-scraping technologies.
Back said the issue wasn’t simply about the technology itself.
“I think there’s a huge lack of education in that space and what the advantages really are,” Back said.
He added that changing long-established broker habits remains one of the biggest barriers.
“Adult human behavioural change is hard,” Back said.
However, brokers willing to embrace the technology now would be better positioned as the market evolved.
“Those brokers that are adopting this early ... are the ones that are going to have time spent now with more clients, doing more content, more marketing, being on the front foot,” Back said.
“I think there’s an opportunity for them to step ahead of those brokers that just haven’t changed.”
The fight against fraud
Beyond improving efficiency, Back said open banking could also become an increasingly important weapon in the fight against mortgage fraud.
His comments follow calls from the major banks for customer-consented Australian Taxation Office data to be incorporated into the Consumer Data Right, with the major banks telling a Senate committee earlier this month that access to verified income information would reduce reliance on documents such as payslips, strengthen fraud detection and speed up loan approvals.
Back said the growing sophistication of fraudulent documents meant brokers needed better ways to verify customer information.
“If fraud was a country from a GDP perspective, it would be the third largest country in the world,” Back said, referencing cyber security expert Paul Hankin.
He said open banking should be viewed as a way of supporting brokers rather than replacing their judgement.
“It’s there to support and augment the experience so that we’re protecting the broker, protecting the customer, protecting the aggregator, protecting the bank,” Back said.
However, he warned trust would remain critical if adoption was to accelerate.
“I think the education piece from the broker to the consumer is really, really important,” Back said.
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