6 Questions Every Exec Should Be Asking About CDR

1. Are we treating CDR as a compliance project - or a platform opportunity?

Most teams start with the compliance lens: uptime, consent rules, API specs. And that’s understandable, regulation is non-negotiable.

But the real leaders are asking:

What can we build on top of this infrastructure?

CDR opens the door to:

• Embedded partnerships
• Smarter switching journeys
• Data-driven CX improvements
• Ecosystem collaboration

The opportunity isn’t just doing what the rules say. It’s doing more, once the pipes are laid.

2. Who owns our CDR strategy - and do they have authority beyond compliance?

CDR touches legal, engineering, product, CX, and ops. But too often, it gets owned by the team that has the most to lose (legal), not the team with the most to gain (product or platform).

Executives should ask:

• Have we assigned a true owner with cross-functional influence?
• Does that person think beyond risk mitigation?
• Are we aligning this work to commercial outcomes?

If ownership is reactive, results will be too.

3. Are we building infrastructure that scales across sectors - or locking ourselves into a one-off build?

CDR started with banking. Then energy. Telco is next. Insurance and super may follow.

If your infrastructure is hardcoded to a single use case, you’ll be rebuilding (and re-budgeting) for every sector.

Forward-thinking execs ask:

• Is our data-sharing architecture flexible?
• Can we support multiple sectors with the same backbone?
• Are we ready for multi-sector consent and data portability?

Rigid systems now are technical debt tomorrow.

4. How are we turning consent into a competitive advantage - not just a legal formality?

CDR puts consent front and centre. That means your customers are now making real-time trust decisions inside your product.

Poor UX here isn’t just bad design, it’s lost trust, lost data, and lost opportunities.

Ask:

• Is our consent flow human-readable, not just compliant?
• Can users easily see, manage, and revoke their sharing preferences?
• Are we building trust or hiding behind terms and conditions?

Consent is a brand moment. Don’t waste it.

5. Are we shaping the open data ecosystem - or just adapting to it?

The rollout of CDR isn’t just about participation. It’s about positioning.

Some organisations are taking a wait-and-see approach, reacting to regulatory timelines and playing defence. But forward-thinking companies are asking:

• How do we influence the standards being set?
• Are we building capabilities others want to plug into?
• Can we become the infrastructure others rely on?

Being in the ecosystem is table stakes. Helping shape it is how you win.

6. What’s our three-year plan for CDR - and does it align with our growth strategy?

Too many businesses treat CDR as a 12-month compliance sprint. But open data isn’t a project - it’s a permanent condition.

That means execs should ask:

• How does this fit into our embedded strategy?
• What products or partnerships will this unlock?
• How will we measure ROI - beyond “not being fined”?

CDR is infrastructure. Long-term advantage depends on what you build with it.

How Fiskil Can Help

Fiskil helps forward-thinking energy and financial services businesses build a scalable, secure, and future-proof CDR infrastructure.

We work with executives, product leads, and compliance teams to:

• Reduce implementation risk
• Align infrastructure with business strategy
• Build APIs and consent flows your customers will actually want to use
• Stay ahead of evolving rules without having to rebuild every year

Whether you're exploring accreditation, launching data-driven features, or future-proofing your platform - Fiskil helps you turn CDR from cost centre to competitive edge.

Want to map your CDR roadmap to your growth goals? Let's talk.