Sumsub Joins FDATA to Secure North America's Open Finance Future

MIAMI, FL – February 05, 2026 – As North America stands on the cusp of a new era in financial data sharing, global verification leader Sumsub has joined the Financial Data and Technology Association (FDATA), signaling a concerted effort to embed security and fraud prevention into the very foundation of the continent's burgeoning open finance ecosystem.

The partnership places Sumsub, a company specializing in identity verification and compliance, alongside more than 30 influential financial technology firms in a trade association dedicated to shaping policy and standards. This move comes at a critical juncture, with both the United States and Canada finalizing regulations that will fundamentally change how consumers and businesses control and share their financial information.

A Partnership Forged Amid Rising Threats

Trust is the currency of open finance, an ecosystem where consumers grant third-party applications permission to access their financial data to power innovative budgeting, lending, and investment tools. Without robust security, that trust evaporates. This collaboration directly confronts the escalating threat of digital fraud, which has become a primary obstacle to widespread adoption.

"Joining FDATA is an exciting opportunity to collaborate with peers shaping the global open finance landscape," said Kat Cloud, Head of Government Relations at Sumsub. "With sophisticated fraud rising over 180% last year according to our internal data, it's more important than ever that open finance frameworks embed secure, resilient identity verification at their core."

This alarming statistic is not an outlier. Broader industry reports from 2023 indicated that over two-thirds of financial organizations saw a rise in consumer fraud, with increasingly advanced methods powered by generative AI projected to cost the banking sector tens of billions of dollars. The interconnected nature of open finance, while a catalyst for innovation, also creates a wider attack surface for these bad actors.

FDATA leadership views the addition of a verification specialist as essential to its mission. "Trust is the foundation of open finance," stated Steve Boms, Executive Director of FDATA. "Sumsub's technology helps ensure consumers can share their financial data safely and confidently, advancing FDATA's mission to empower people and businesses through secure, permissioned data access."

Shaping the New Rules of Financial Data

The timing of this alliance is no coincidence. Regulators across North America are in the final stages of codifying the rules for open finance. In the United States, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released its final rule under Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act in late 2024. This landmark regulation mandates that banks and credit unions provide consumers with access to their financial data in a standardized format, with compliance for larger institutions beginning in April 2026. While the rule faces some legal review, the momentum toward consumer data portability is undeniable.

Simultaneously, Canada is advancing its own "Consumer-Driven Banking Act," with the framework expected to be operational by early 2026. The Canadian model explicitly aims to eliminate risky practices like "screen-scraping," where consumers share their banking passwords with third parties, in favor of secure, API-based connections.

By joining FDATA, Sumsub gains a direct line to these policy discussions. The company will contribute to several key FDATA bodies, including the U.S. Policy Working Group and the Canada Working Group. This participation provides a "seat at the table," allowing Sumsub to lend its expertise on identity and fraud to help shape the technical and security standards that will underpin these new regulatory regimes, ensuring they are both practical for businesses and protective for consumers.

The Strategic Play for an Evolving Ecosystem

Beyond policy advocacy, Sumsub's membership in FDATA is a significant strategic move. As open finance transitions from a theoretical concept to a regulated reality, the companies that provide the essential infrastructure for security and compliance are poised for substantial growth. By embedding its expertise into the industry's foundational standards, Sumsub positions its verification and fraud prevention solutions as a critical component, not an optional add-on.

This collaboration places Sumsub within an ecosystem of major fintech players and financial institutions, including past and present FDATA members like Plaid, Intuit, and Xero. The partnership fosters collaboration and strengthens Sumsub's competitive positioning in a market where demonstrating robust security is a key differentiator. For a company recognized by industry analysts like Gartner for its verification platform, influencing the operating environment is a powerful way to drive adoption and solidify its role as a leader in the space.

Beyond Reading Data: The Challenge of 'Write-Access'

The horizon of open finance extends beyond simply viewing, or 'reading,' financial data. The next frontier is 'write-access'—the ability for authorized third parties to initiate actions on a consumer's behalf, such as making payments, transferring funds, or opening new accounts. This functionality promises a new wave of hyper-convenient and automated financial services.

Canada's framework already anticipates this evolution, with plans to introduce write-access capabilities by mid-2027, aligning with the launch of its Real-Time Rail payments system. However, granting third parties transactional power dramatically elevates the security stakes. It opens new vectors for fraud, such as unauthorized push payments, and raises complex questions about liability and consumer consent.

Sumsub's involvement in FDATA's Write-Access Working Group is particularly forward-looking. This group is tasked with navigating the immense technical and security challenges of enabling transactional capabilities safely. Developing industry-wide standards for authentication, fraud monitoring, and consent management for write-access will be paramount to its success. This work ensures that as the open finance ecosystem matures, the frameworks for protecting consumers from financial harm evolve in lockstep with the technology's expanding capabilities.