As the effort to develop a faster payments system continues apace, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today added its perspective about how consumer protections might best be integrated into new payments mechanisms. The bureau’s principles seemed to build on many bank-oriented protections consumers already enjoy.
Specifically, the bureau said that consumers should have clear control of authorizing payments, disclosure of how and to whom data are shared, real-time status and confirmation information and high levels of security. The bureau also stated that any faster payments system should provide consumers with Reg E and Reg Z protections from fraud and error, that transactions should be “affordable” and that overdrafts should decline. Consumers should also be able to make and receive payments through a wide variety of providers, both banks and nonbanks.
“Companies developing new financial technologies should be building systems from the outset with consumer protections in mind,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “It is a lot easier to build something right from the start than it is to retrofit it. The CFPB will continue our work to help ensure that financial services marketplaces are safe and transparent for consumers.”
