Oppose Price Controls for Bank Data - American Commitment

American Commitment submitted comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opposing the Biden administration’s unlawful and harmful open banking rule, warning that it would impose price controls, undermine data privacy, and shift costs onto all bank customers. Here is a portion of that letter, and you can read the full letter here.

Dear Acting Director Vought: 

We commend the bureau for acknowledging the flaws in the Personal Financial  Data Rights rule promulgated under the Biden administration. We agree that the  Biden open banking rule is unworkable, unlawful, and harmful to consumers  and the financial system.  

We urge the bureau to reject price controls for consumer data as you revisit  the Personal Financial Data Rights rule.  

Congress gave bank customers the right to obtain their own data under 12 USC §  5533. Section 1033 of Dodd Frank was not intended to create an open banking  regime whereby banks are compelled to share data free of charge to third parties,  fintech firms, data aggregators, or any other commercial actors. Subsection  1033(d) directs the Bureau to “prescribe standards to promote the development  and use of standardized formats” for consumers, with no reference to any other  applicable party. The Biden administration’s interpretation of 1033 grossly  oversteps the bounds of the CFPB’s rulemaking jurisdiction…