Australia's competition watchdog says the quality of data held by consumer data right holders will become a “priority area for compliance and enforcement activities”.
The possibility is flagged in a recent paper [pdf] analysing the results of a consultation the ACCC kicked off in October last year.
While data is “generally sufficient” for delivering CDR products and services, data recipients and users highlighted two key shortcomings.
First, the ACCC said, "there are significant shortcomings in the quality of product reference data.”
Second, recipients and users of product reference data “raised concerns over the
responsiveness of data holders when data quality issues have been raised with them.”
As well as taking a more active data quality regulatory approach, the ACCC said it could also “clarify the nature of data quality obligations to ensure a better understanding of expectations around appropriate data quality.”
Issues highlighted for enforcement action following the consultation include the provision of incorrect interest rates; missing data; use of free text fields where relevant structured text fields exist; and “data that is not commensurate with what a consumer can otherwise see in their online or mobile banking channels”.
Further, the regulator said, it will take action where data holders offer “slow or insufficient responses to data quality issues”.
The ACCC’s second action item will be to work with Treasury, the OAIC, and the Data Standards Body, “to develop new guidance on data quality related obligations and to consider clarifications to particular data quality related obligations in the CDR framework”.
The regulator also promised to improve the portal offered to stakeholders to report data quality complaints.
The ACCC additionally promised a further consultation covering new data quality compliance transparency measures.
Last month, the ACCC warned data holders against implementing technology upgrades in ways that breached their existing CDR obligations.
