Daniel Mulino MP, Minister for Financial Services and Assistant Treasurer, has outlined that he believes brokers are well-placed to drive open banking adoption and enhance client outcomes.
Speaking at the Finance Brokers Association of Australia (FBAA) National Industry Conference on the Gold Coast on Friday (31 October), Mulino said the broking industry had a central role in connecting consumers and lenders in a data-driven financial future.
While uptake in open banking usage is increasing, Mulino suggested that brokers were well-placed to help drive this further.
“There were more than 660,000 ongoing Consumer Data Right authorisations for bank customers in August 2025 – that’s a 132 per cent increase from 12 months earlier,” he said.
“We want consumers to have confidence in our system and all of its broader productivity benefits require good information flows. I want to acknowledge that brokers are a key part of information flows within the finance sector.”
The Assistant Treasurer described the Consumer Data Right (CDR) as a transformative tool that “can lead to better financial management” as it enables streamlined product comparisons” and added that it was therefore “a natural fit for brokers”.
Mulino flagged that the open banking regime allows brokers to gather information securely through the trusted adviser model – and that it was “better than screen scraping” from both a security and a speed perspective.
He explained: “Average time between a broker’s request and receiving their clients’ data is just seven minutes, about the same time it takes to toast a sandwich.”
Addressing FBAA broker members at the conference, Mulino noted that brokers were already engaging with open banking platforms, with growing adoption across the mortgage sector.
“Brokers are recognising the benefits. More than 13 per cent of mortgage brokers were actively using NextGen’s Frollo platform in August 2025 and more than 32,000 Australians have used Frollo open banking with their mortgage broker in the past year alone,” he said and noted that there were also broker tools that were harnessing open banking data to support borrowers in achieving better home loan rates, such as Sherlok.
“It uses CDR and AI to automatically notify brokers about loan offers for their clients. It’s built on the belief that changing mortgage lenders should be simple.”
He said further open banking developments were on the horizon, with the government’s “reset agenda” for the CDR focused on building on momentum through three key objectives: driving consumer uptake, removing barriers to practical use cases, and streamlining the customer experience.
The regime will also expand next year when non-bank lenders are brought into the fold, which the Assistant Treasurer said he expected would open new opportunities for brokers.
“We anticipate more innovation when the CDR extends to non-banking lending in July next year. We hope to see use cases where consumers can make better choices, where they can switch providers and more easily apply for products and services,” Mulino said.
“For brokers, we expect more accessible, complete and secure information about consumers’ finances and products available will support your advice on suitable loans.”
Mulino flagged that the technical elements of this expansion were being worked on at the moment, with the Data Standards Body working on the requirements for how the data will be shared by non-banks, while the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) will be issuing guidance on this.
“The rollout of the Consumer Data Right to the non-bank lending sector will be a major step for open finance in Australia,” he said.
Mulino urged brokers to stay informed about the evolving open banking landscape and prepare to take advantage of the efficiencies and insights CDR can provide.
“The Consumer Data Right is better for your clients. It’s also better for you as brokers, and it’s something that you should know about today to prepare for tomorrow,” Mulino said.
[Related: Proposed open banking reforms spark industry backlash]
