Standardising data access is vital for growth in the Australian fintech industry, says Investment Link.

InvestmentLink state that improvements in the fintech industry are limited by the scope of financial institutions to access sophisticated data.

In a statement to the fintech sector earlier this month, the Government proposed that the development of new products and services within the market could increase data availability across the finance sector.

Limited accesses to financial data has restricted fintech companies, and new products are needed to revolutionise the ways Australians engage with their financial assets.

While the Government initiative to open the market to new developments is a large step, InvestmentLink chief technology officer Wayne Robinson said it needs to go further.

“The Government has rightly highlighted the challenges that data access poses for the sector,its focus, however, remains to narrow…there is a wider emerging financial service sector that also needs access to sufficient data to prove its value,” he said.

There are a number of complexities for accessing sufficient data, which is also a major restricting factor for many fintech companies attempting to establish themselves in international markets.

“Currently, major financial institutions do not provide generic solutions to allow access to data, they develop one-off solutions for individual companies. This is an expensive process, and one that large nstitutions are reluctant to do for developing fintech companies, particularly for companies that have yet to develop a significant customer base,” said Robinson.

“The development of standardised access solutions, covering institutional data and allowing clients to authorize third-party access to personal transactional data, would be a major boost for the emerging fintech sector.”