Financial technology firms and mega-retailers are trying to trick the public about access to their own consumer financial information so the companies can profit from charging for access to that same data, the American Bankers Association’s Ryan Miller wrote in a new op-ed for American Banker.
Groups representing fintechs, retailers and cryptocurrency companies are seeking to preserve the prohibition on charging third-party businesses fees currently enshrined in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Biden-Era rule implementing Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act. They have called on President Trump “to oppose exorbitant consumer data access fees that would prevent consumers from connecting their bank accounts to better financial products of their choice.”
Miller — who is VP and senior counsel for innovation policy at ABA — wrote that the issue is not about consumers accessing their own information. Banks already enable information sharing as part of the core provision of financial products and services, and they already facilitate the sharing of consumer personal information with third parties when they can do so in a safe and sound way.
“When fintech and crypto say ‘consumers should own their data,’ it’s a cover for what they really think: ‘Consumer data belongs to us,’” Miller wrote. “In fact, the business model of data aggregators is charging fees to access the very same consumer data they expect banks to give them for free. I have to wonder whether these companies intend to live by the same absurd rules they expect for others. Spoiler alert: They don’t. Fintech and crypto know it’s laughable. But there’s nothing funny about trying to pull wool over the public’s eye when it comes to their personal information.”
