In his 2018 Federal Budget speech, Treasurer Scott Morrison indicated the government would be pushing forward with an Open Banking regime.There will be A$44.6 million allocated over four years from 2018/19 to establish a new "consumer data right" framework, with the banking sector to be the first Australian industry sector to be subject to this framework.Implementation will be phased in from July 2019, paving the way for the introduction of the Government's Consumer Data Right in the banking sector.The aim is to give banking customers greater access to the data their banks hold on them and the ability to direct that it be safely transferred to trusted and accredited service providers of their choice, as Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison noted in a more detailed explanation earlier this week.In the wake of the Farrell Report, which recommended adopting the UK's standards as a starting point for Australia, the lessons learned from other countries that have been on this journey are especially relevant for Australian financial institutions and technologists.Banks across Europe are required by law (the second Payment Service Directive or PSD2) to allow customers to use a regulated third party to access their bank account (with their permission) using a secure interface (e.g. a secure API). However, it's not as straightforward as setting up regulations and letting market forces do the rest according to Chris Michael, chief technology officer at the UK's Open Banking implementation entity.Open Banking was founded in London in late 2016, and Michael leads the technical teams to design and deliver this standard. This is where he would like all regions to direct their attention."There is not an equivalent of what we are doing anywhere else in the world," he said."No one is creating a centralised identity and trust framework."Michael said the first round of "open data APIs" were really no more than codifying publicly available information - giving out data about particular banks: for example, the opening hours for ATMs, different pricing of products. It's what you can get anywhere if you go to a public website.It's useful for comparison websites but has not had a big impact on the market. There is no personal data included.In contrast the UK's first version of the "read-write" API went live in January this year. Not all of the nine biggest banks in the UK went live at the same time - "they were all supposed to but some of them didn't quite make it," Michael said.The read-write API deals with all the information that is pertinent to a unique customer."It allows a regulated third party with my permission to go to my bank and get that data. But I'm in control. I decide which third party to use and how much access I will give them - not just access to all my data."This is what open data in Australia is likely to start off as," Michael said.When open APIs are allowed and combined with something like Faster Payments or some other payment rails the situation becomes "interesting", Michael