Contact: Laine Williams, (202) 897-4757, [email protected]
Washington, DC, December 6, 2024 – The Financial Data and Technology Association of North America (FDATA), a trade association representing more than three dozen financial technology and open finance companies in the United States and Canada, today submitted a comment in response to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (“FDIC”) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) on recordkeeping for custodial accounts. In the letter, FDATA North America expressed support for the FDIC’s stated goal of safeguarding customer funds and improving transparency, but urged the FDIC to explicitly clarify that non-transactional settlement accounts are not classified as “custodial deposit accounts with transactional features” in a final rule.
FDATA North America emphasized the need to broaden exemptions for non-transactional settlement accounts, such as those used in merchant acquiring services and other essential financial operations, which facilitate digital payments and e-commerce. These accounts serve as temporary conduits for fund payment transfers without granting direct transactional rights to account owners. Applying customer-level recordkeeping requirements to these accounts could disrupt established payment systems and increase costs without delivering additional consumer benefits.
In the letter, we also highlighted the importance of regulatory coordination, urging the FDIC to assess how the NPRM aligns with other recent actions, including the finalized Section 1033 rule on personal financial data rights. A cohesive regulatory framework is essential to fostering innovation, protecting consumers, and ensuring access to affordable financial services.
A full copy of the letter is available here.