The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned that it will take a stronger and more active regulatory approach to improve data quality in the Consumer Data Right system. In its latest review of the scheme, the ACCC said: “The current quality of product reference data is of particular concern.” It said poor product reference data is hindering the use of that data for comparison services. The ACCC published a discussion paper on CDR data quality in October last year. It received 12 submissions in response and held 13 bilateral meetings. The review details the findings from that consultation and the ACCC’s own monitoring of products reference data. Consumer data. It found that the quality of consumer data is generally sufficient to support the delivery of CDR products and services, although improvements are required. Consumer data, in the case of open banking, includes transaction data, account balances, interest rates the consumer is paying. Where there were problems, data recipients reported that in some cases data holders were disclosing only around half of the consumer transactions that should be included in the data. In other cases, transaction descriptions did not match the descriptions shown to consumers through their online or mobile banking services. The review said: “A small subset of data holders have particularly severe data quality issues.” The ACCC cannot view consumer data directly. Concerns about consumer data quality are typically brought to its attention through reports from participants. It can monitor product reference data. Product reference data. The review found that there are significant shortcomings in the quality of product reference data. And data recipients and other users of product reference data raised concerns about the responsiveness of data holders when data quality issues have been raised with them. Product reference data is information about products a data holder offers publicly. In the case of the banking sector, this includes home loans, savings accounts, transaction accounts and credit card products. The review said: “According to users, the majority of data holders have at least some data quality issues present in their product data, with incorrect interest rates a particularly prevalent and high-impact issue.” In addition to consultation with users, the ACCC has undertaken more than 100 product reference data reviews and raised more than 280 separate issues relating to data quality. It said: “Some cases of poor data quality arise from non-compliance, particularly if data holders do not update product reference data in a timely way when terms and conditions of products change (for example, to reflect rate changes).” “However, not all product reference data quality issues are the result of non-compliance. The reality is that most underlying products are not standardised, with banks designing and marketing their products in different ways. The CDR does not require products to be standardised but instead requires information on products to be shared in a standardised way.” The CDR system includes obligations to ensure data is accurate and to respond to requests to correct errors.  The ACCC said poor product reference data is hindering the use of that data for comparison services. Problems include the provision of incorrect