The American Bankers Association, the New York Bankers Association and two other associations today issued a joint statement to correct the record on a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau blog post the groups said misrepresented the scope of the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.
The May 29 blog post was about an amicus brief filed by CFPB in a lawsuit brought against Citibank by the New York state attorney general’s office for allegedly failing to protect and reimburse victims of wire fraud. ABA earlier this month joined other associations in an amicus brief arguing that New York is misapplying the EFTA because it expressly does not apply to wire transfers, which are instead governed by Article 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code. In its blog post, the CFPB contends that the EFTA does cover the transfers, a claim that ABA and the other associations have said runs counter to the law.
“Banks are dedicated to protecting consumers from fraud and scams, as demonstrated by the extensive consumer education campaigns they conduct and the significant investments they have made to ensure strong cybersecurity safeguards,” the associations said. “They also investigate and report scammers to law enforcement, while working closely with their customers to remedy the situation.
“The CFPB has the law wrong here: Wire transfers are excluded from the Electronic Fund Transfer Act,” the groups added. “The CFPB cannot reinterpret a statute and reverse decades of settled law in an amicus brief and then use a blog post to suggest that its position is the law. The bureau is supposed to be educating consumers, not confusing them.”
