BCU Bank Logo

Search www.bcu.com.au

Welcome to open banking

Introducing Open Banking

Open Banking is an initiative in the Australian Banking industry which will allow you to manage your banking across several banks and compare products and services between different banks and financial institutions.

You may have seen some third-party services in the market which allow you to view all your accounts across different banks in one place. Open Banking acts in a similar way, but much more securely – you won’t need to connect your internet banking to share your banking information other than to provide your initial consent.

As part of Open Banking, the Consumer Data Right (CDR) will allow you to easily compare financial products and pricing by using your real data, rather than estimates. This will reduce the number of forms to fill out, help you manage your budget and stay on top of your accounts across multiple banks, and make it easier to apply for loans or products.

Open Banking gives you choice, control, and convenience, and as an opt-in service, sharing your data securely is completely in your hands.


What does Open Banking provide?

Open Banking gives you the ability to share your banking information with other accredited parties such as other banks and financial institutions – online via a simple, easy to use and automated process, making it easier for you to manage, compare and consider banking products and services.

Consumer data rights explained

Open Banking is provided and governed by the CDR legislation, introduced by the Australian Government to give consumers more control over their data and make it easier to:

  • compare products and services
  • access new and improved services

It enables consumers to share their data with accredited providers via a simple, secure, and easy to use automated process.

CDR will first apply to the banking sector, however, may apply to utilities sectors in the future.

CDR provides a range of rules and safeguards to ensure your data is protected.

Who is involved in CDR?

The data sharing is done between accredited providers – consumers consent to their data being shared from a data holder to a data recipient. All providers must be accredited by ACCC to start sharing data.

An accredited data recipient receives consumer data to provide a product or service; whereas an accredited data holder holds consumer data and can transfer the data to an accredited data recipient upon receiving a consumer’s request and consent.

You can find a current list of providers on the CDR website.

Sharing your data

You’re in control of your data at all times and can choose to share as much (subject to prescribed data that can be shared) or as little as you want.

To be able to share your data, you’ll need to be at least 18 years or older, be the owner of the account or have authority to operate on that account, and you must have internet banking.

You can choose to share account balances, the type of account and transaction information, including the transaction amount, date, and the description. Transaction information can be used to build a picture of your spending, by grouping transactions into categories like “rent”, “groceries” or “entertainment”.

How we manage your information under the Consumer Data Rights is detailed in our ‘Consumer Data Rights Policy’ available .

Consenting to share your data

Here’s how to provide your consent to share your data with an Open Banking service provider.

  1. Check their data recipient status (the organisations to whom you are wishing to share your data), to make sure they are ready to collect your data.
  2. The service provider will ask you which bank your accounts are with and what data you’d like to share – remember, you can see and manage this at any time.
  3. Once you select us, a BCU Bank webpage will load where you provide your member number.
  4. You’ll need to verify your identity, using a one-time password. This is provided by BCU via text, or you can generate a One Time Password in your internet banking (see how in the FAQ below).
  5. Review the request.
  6. Provide consent to share. If the account is a joint account, a proposal will be created and sent to all account holders to gain consent.
  7. Select accounts you want to share data for.
  8. Confirm.

consent process 1
consent process 1
consent process 1
consent process 1
consent process 1


If it is a joint account you're sharing, please select the accounts:

consent process 1
consent process 1

Once your consent has been gained, your data will then be shared with the selected provider, and you can use the provider’s service.

For example, this might be loading your data into BCU's new app (coming soon), another bank’s budgeting app, or a third-party comparison website.

You’ll be able to see all your shared banking information in one place, and receive accurate quotes and product comparisons, based on your real data and actual circumstances.

The following products will be available to share:

  • Transaction accounts
  • Savings accounts
  • Term deposits
  • Credit cards
  • Home loans
  • Personal loans
  • Business and commercial products
  • Overdraft accounts
  • Pensioner or retirement accounts

Withdrawing your consent

You can also withdraw your consent to share your data at any time. Follow these steps to remove a service:

  1. For accounts in one name only: Login to Internet Banking and navigate to Services > Sharing. A list of existing or previous data sharing agreements will display.
    • Select “sharing” of the agreement you wish to withdraw your consent from.
    • Scroll to the bottom and select “withdraw”.
  2. For joint accounts: Login to Internet Banking and navigate to Services > Sharing. A list of existing or previous data sharing agreements will display.
    • Select “sharing” of the agreement you wish to withdraw your consent from.
    • Scroll to the bottom and select “withdraw”.
    • A proposal will be created and sent to the other joint account holder.
    • The data sharing can be withdrawn if the other joint account holder approves the request.

Privacy and security

Your privacy and security are our highest priority. BCU has comprehensive security measures in place to ensure your accounts and personal information are protected from unauthorised access. 

Your privacy is also protected by our Privacy Policy, which can be found at https://www.bcu.com.au/privacy-policy.

Information and support

Helpful links

To find out more about Australia’s Consumer Data Right, visit the ACCC website at  https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/consumer-data-right-cdr-0 or https://www.cdr.gov.au/how-it-works.

Frequently asked questions

Open Banking is being rolled out in multiple phases.

  • Product data – completed 1 July 2021
    Information about P&N Bank products’ rates, fees and features 
  • Consumer data sharing – completed 1 February 2022
    Personal information such as phone number, email address and home address
  • Joint accounts sharing – completed 1 October 2022
    Information about joint accounts such as balances, joint owners, transactions
  • BCU mymo companion app – completed 27 March 2023
  • Non-individuals sharing – completed 15 June 2023
  • Business and commercial products – coming soon

Collecting this data has been mandated by the Australian Government. This data will not be shared with any other financial institution until you provide your consent.

BCU has partnered with fintech company Frollo and will launch a companion app. When the app is available, you’ll be able to bring together your data from other financial institutions and third parties, and view them all together in the app. We will be providing more information about this soon.

At this stage you can view this through BCU iBank.

To view your data, navigate to Login > Services > Data Sharing to show a list of your existing or previous data sharing agreements.

To display more information about the data sharing agreement, select “Sharing”/“Withdrawn”.

Your data is only shared as part of an active data sharing agreement, and you can withdraw your consent to share your information at any time.

You can share as much or as little information as you want to. You can choose to share account balances, the type of account and transaction information, including the transaction amount, date and the description.

Sharing your data is entirely your choice. If you are offered a product or service that requires you to share your data, the decision to proceed, or not, will always be yours. We’ll never share your data without your consent.

You can also choose to opt out of sharing any data you may have previously consented to sharing, at any time.

No, you’ll never need to give your BCU iBank password to anyone or any organisation. If you have chosen to share your banking data withanother bank or financial institution, a one-time password will be sent to your registered number via SMS to help identify you.

To generate an OTP, after providing your member number, login to Internet Banking and you’ll be promoted to send an SMS to verify your identity. Input your SMS code and once validated you’ll be able to generate an OTP.

consent process 1
consent process 1
consent process 1
consent process 1

Under the Consumer Data Right legislation, you will not be charged for sharing or accessing your data either by us or by other banks or financial institutions.

There are two disclosure options for joint accounts, enable sharing or disable sharing. You can follow the steps in the section above called Consenting to share your data to complete your sharing. By default, the data sharing option has been set to share.

Login to Internet Banking > Settings > Receipts > tick the Joint Account sharing box to receive notifications.

If you would like to provide us with any feedback including compliments or complaints, or requests to correct any data you consider may be incorrect, please contact us on 1300 228 228 or visit your nearest branch. We’ll aim to resolve your issue on your first point of contact with us.

Find out more about our complaints resolution process.