For years, the only way to get your bank data into a budgeting app was screen-scraping: you handed over your internet-banking username and password, and the app logged in as you to copy your transactions. Australia's Consumer Data Right (CDR), the framework behind Open Banking, was built to replace that. Here's how the two actually differ.
Screen-scraping: you share your password
With screen-scraping, a third party stores your banking credentials and uses them to log in on your behalf. That means:
- They hold your password. Anyone with it has the same access you do.
- Access is all-or-nothing. There's no way to share just your transactions, or just one account.
- It's hard to revoke. You have to change your password to cut access off.
- It often breaches your bank's terms, which can leave you liable if something goes wrong.
There's no regulator in the middle, and no standard for what's collected or how long it's kept.
Open Banking (CDR): your password never leaves your bank
Under the CDR, you never share your banking password with anyone but your bank. The flow is:
- You pick your bank and are sent to your bank's own login.
- Your bank confirms your identity and shows you exactly what's being requested.
- You choose which accounts and which data categories to share, and for how long.
- Your bank shares only that data, directly, with an Accredited Data Recipient.
Access is granular (you pick the categories), time-limited (up to 12 months — see consent duration), and revocable in real time at any point. The whole framework is regulated by the ACCC and Treasury's Data Standards Body.
Where Redbark sits
Redbark connects through the CDR via Fiskil, an Accredited Data Recipient. We never see or store your banking login, and we only request read-only access to your accounts and transactions. Many modern Australian budgeting apps now use the CDR too — the important thing is simple: with Open Banking, your password stays at your bank.
Ready to connect? See the banks Redbark supports or browse bank-to-destination flows.