When the Competition Bureau released Your Data, Your Control on Jan 15th, it would have been easy to treat it as just another policy document: important, technical, and easy to acknowledge before moving on.
But I found myself pausing.
$1.1 to $3.8 billion in potential annual savings for Canadians just on insurance alone
What stood out was that this was one of the first times a Canadian regulator put a real economic value on consumer data mobility. Not innovation. Not fintech growth. But the cost of friction, and what happens when people are unable to move easily between providers.
That framing matters because it aligns closely with what we are already seeing in consumer behaviour.
At Environics, we track this shift through two long-running studies. The Canadian Financial Services Switching Study has followed how often Canadians switch financial institutions and products for more than twenty years, revealing when and why switching accelerates or slows. Alongside it, the Canadian Fintech Syndicated Study focuses on mindset, examining Canadians’ awareness of and trust in non-traditional financial institutions, as well as attitudes toward technology in finance, including AI, open banking, and data sharing. In that study, we segment Canadians into distinct fintech groups based on Social Values, which helps explain not just who adopts new tools, but the motivations and concerns shaping those decisions. Together, these studies show both sides of the story: what Canadians are doing, and what makes them feel ready or reluctant to do it.
The behaviour is already changing. According to the Switching Study, 24 per cent of Canadians switched a financial account or product in the past year, the highest rate recorded in more than two decades of tracking. The study surveyed 45,000 Canadians, making this a broad-based signal rather than a niche one. With Canada’s immigration levels declining, banks can no longer rely on a steady flow of newcomers for growth. Competition for existing customers is intensifying.
To understand why this moment feels different, it helps to remember that we have seen a similar pattern before.
A Personal Reminder of What Friction Used to Look Like
Over the holidays, I switched my phone service from one carrier to another and kept my number. The entire process took about twenty minutes. Not that long ago, that would have been unthinkable. Before phone number portability, switching carriers meant giving up your number, notifying contacts, and accepting a break in continuity. Even when pricing or service was better elsewhere, many people stayed put because the practical cost of switching was simply too high.
Number portability changed that dynamic. It didn’t make people disloyal; it removed the penalty for choice. Once consumers could take their number with them, competition began to work more effectively. Prices adjusted, service improved, and innovation followed. The market didn’t collapse. It recalibrated.
Financial data isn’t a phone number, but the lesson carries. When switching no longer means losing identity or starting over, behaviour changes. The ability to move without friction doesn’t force people to switch, but it gives them the confidence to consider it. And that confidence is often what unlocks meaningful competition.
Fragmentation Is the Hidden Pressure
Today, financial life is rarely housed in one place. A mortgage in one institution, a credit card in another, a car loan somewhere else, with chequing, savings, investments, insurance, and fintech apps layered across the rest. Add a spouse or partner with their own mix of accounts, and even financially engaged households can struggle to see the full picture.
No single institution has that view, and neither does the consumer.
Switching providers often means losing context built over time. Even when better options exist, staying put can feel easier than starting over. That accumulated friction is the pressure data portability begins to release.
Why Interoperability Is the Quiet Enabler
This is where interoperability becomes critical. Interoperability is the ability of different digital platforms to interact with one another. Data portability allows people to move their data, while interoperability ensures that data can actually be accessed and used across providers. Without interoperability, portability risks becoming a one-time transfer. With it, financial information becomes part of an ongoing, connected financial life.
That distinction matters because it fundamentally changes the consumer experience. When systems can talk to one another, people can see their financial lives in one place, with context intact—cash flow alongside debt, spending beside savings, and risk next to opportunity. In that environment, choice becomes less about switching providers and more about managing finances with clarity rather than guesswork.
Why This Lands Differently Across Canadians
Our annual Canadian Fintech Study of 2,000 Canadians helps explain how this plays out across the population. We identified four distinct fintech segments based on values and attitudes toward technology and finance:
While Anxious Traditionalists and Reserved Skeptics are more cautious, they hesitate for different reasons. Anxious Traditionalists tend to worry that their data is not being stored or handled securely, and that movement increases the risk of breaches or misuse. Reserved Skeptics, by contrast, are more likely to distrust technology altogether. In both cases, the perceived risk of losing control or continuity looms large. Done well, data portability can help lower that barrier by making transfers more secure, standardized, and transparent. When switching no longer feels like starting from zero, even cautious consumers become more open to alternatives.
Why 2026 Feels Like a Release Point
For consumers, this shift is about more than better rates or lower fees. It is about clarity and confidence. It is about being able to see, understand, and manage financial life across products and providers without stitching it together manually.
For the industry, the implications are structural. Inertia becomes a weaker source of retention. Loyalty increasingly depends on relevance, transparency, and the ability to turn data into meaningful value for the individual.
Several forces are converging at once: regulatory attention, visible switching behaviour, more mature fintech offerings, and consumers already living with fragmented financial lives. Data portability does not force Canadians to switch, nor does it promise disruption for its own sake. What it does is relieve a long-standing constraint.
Once people can move without penalty, competition begins to behave differently. Loyalty has to be earned. Value has to be demonstrated. Trust becomes something institutions must show, not assume.
We’ve seen how this plays out in other industries. When pressure builds and then releases, markets do not collapse. They rebalance.
That is what is beginning to happen now.
