Financial Data and Technology Association of North America

Contact: Laine Williams, (202) 897-4757,  [email protected] 

Washington, DC, December 16, 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 expressed its disappointment with the proposals laid out by the government in the Fall Economic Statement (“FES”) to expand the Consumer-Driven Banking Act (“CDBA”), and the government’s announcement that implementation of consumer-driven banking would be delayed by at least another year.

Steve Boms, Executive Director of FDATA North America, released the following statement:

“After almost seven years of deliberations and consultations, the Government has unfortunately put forth an open finance framework that will only further the status quo. By adopting a one-size-fits-all approach, the consumer-driven banking framework advanced by the Government loses the forest for the trees, burying innovative fintech providers in a sea of compliance obligations with little to no consumer protection benefit and guaranteeing that few, if any, fintech platforms will be able to use the open finance system the Government has spent the last several years designing.

A one-size-fits-all-approach will ensure that only the very largest tech companies and financial institutions will have the means to participate in the open finance system the proposed legislation would create. This is a direct contradiction to the Government’s stated goals of fostering competition in financial services and improving affordability for Canadians. This framework will discourage new entrants and stifle the very innovation that open banking was meant to support. Instead of promoting a vibrant and competitive fintech ecosystem, this framework threatens to further formalize a market dominated by just a handful of large incumbents.

We urge the Government to prioritize delivery of consumer-driven banking as soon as possible and to its approach to accreditation, as the current approach risks thwarting the promise of open finance in Canada and denying consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises the benefits of increased choice and innovation that a true open finance framework can provide.”

Contact: Laine Williams, (202) 897-4757,  [email protected] 

Washington, DC, December 12, 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 congratulated Representative French Hill (R-AR) on being named the next Chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

Steve Boms, Executive Director of FDATA North America, released the following statement:

“We have greatly appreciated Rep. Hill’s commitment to fostering financial innovation throughout his tenure on the Committee. We look forward to working closely with him during the next Congress to ensure that consumers and small businesses have free and full access to third-party financial tools and data — a crucial foundation for financial inclusion, competition, and economic growth.

Under his leadership, we are confident that the Committee will continue to support policies that empower consumers, promote innovation in the financial services ecosystem, and ensure a legally binding consumer financial data right.”

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.

Contact: Laine Williams, (202) 897-4757,  [email protected] 

Washington, DC, December 3, 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 expressed its disappointment with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB” or “the Bureau”) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”).

Steve Boms, Executive Director of FDATA North America, released the following statement:

“Today’s proposed rule marks a significant misstep by the CFPB. Consumer-permissioned data access platforms are not “data brokers” and shouldn’t be treated as such. The Bureau risks through today’s rule proposal creating a regulatory framework that could contradict its final Section 1033 rule and pose serious consequences for consumers and the financial tools on which they rely. Instead of promoting consumer choice and control, today’s NPRM risks eroding the competition, consumer control, and choice that the CFPB’s open banking rule provides.

We urge the CFPB to revise its proposal to expressly exclude consumer-permissioned data access platforms from the scope of its FCRA NPRM.”

Contact: Laine Williams, (202) 897-4757,  [email protected] 

Washington, DC, November 21, 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, today expressed disappointment with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB” or “Bureau”) final Rule Defining Larger Participants of a Market for General-Use Digital Consumer Payment Applications, which failed to differentiate between digital wallet providers that hold consumer assets and platforms that merely store other payment methods.

Steve Boms, Executive Director of FDATA, released the following statement:

“While FDATA supports the Bureau’s efforts to enhance consumer protection and promote financial transparency, we are disappointed that the CFPB failed to appropriately tailor its payments larger participant rule to capture only those digital wallets that actually hold consumer funds. The Bureau’s decision to include payment facilitators as covered entities under the LPR, despite the U.S. District Court’s ruling in PayPal v. CFPB, introduces significant additional compliance costs to a host of non-bank payment platforms without offering additional commensurate consumer benefits.

We are concerned that today’s rule could limit competition in the payments marketplace, where digital platforms have offered low-cost, efficient pay-by-bank options that reduce transaction fees. Subjecting these entities to the same regulatory requirements as digital wallets that actually hold consumer funds could stifle innovation and reduce the availability of more affordable payment options. We look forward to continuing to work with the CFPB on this important issue.”

Contact: Laine Williams, (202) 897-4757,  [email protected] 

Washington, DC, October 28, 2024 – The Financial Data and Technology Association of North America (“FDATA North America”), a trade association representing more than three dozen financial technology and open finance companies, today submitted additional comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “the Bureau”) requesting a careful and comprehensive review of the Financial Data Exchange’s (“FDX”) application for recognition as a standard-setting body (“SSB”) following the Bureau’s finalization of its Personal Financial Data Rights rulemaking last week and litigation filed by the Bank Policy Institute (“BPI”), challenging the Bureau’s statutory authority to do so.

FDATA North America’s additional comments raised additional considerations for assessing potential conflicts of interest in FDX’s governance, noting that eight BPI board members are also FDX board members.

In the letter, FDATA North America also stressed that FDX has previously advocated for the CFPB to oversee key areas, such as setting API performance metrics, creating data breach liability frameworks, and establishing technical certification standards. With these functions absent from the CFPB’s final Section 1033 rule, FDATA North America called for additional scrutiny of FDX’s ability to fulfill these roles effectively and independently.

A full copy of the letter is available here.

Contact: Laine Williams, (202) 897-4757,  [email protected] 

Washington, DC, October 22, 2024 – The Financial Data and Technology Association of North America (“FDATA North America”), a trade association representing more than three dozen financial technology and open finance companies, today celebrated the release of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB”) final rule implementing Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Steve Boms, Executive Director of FDATA North America, released the following statement:

“The CFPB’s final Section 1033 rule marks a pivotal moment for millions of consumers across the country, who, for the first time, have a legally binding right to access and share access to their financial data. We applaud the final rule, which puts consumers in control of their financial data, allowing them to select the financial provider that best meets their needs. Today’s final rule does more than fulfill a long-standing need—it redefines the future of financial services in the United States, setting the stage for a more competitive, transparent, affordable, and consumer-focused marketplace for generations to come.

We look forward to continuing to work with the CFPB and with stakeholders from throughout the financial services ecosystem to expand the framework the Bureau finalized today to include additional accounts over time, facilitating a true open finance system in the United States.”

Though highly supportive of the CFPB rulemaking, FDATA North America expressed disappointment that Electronic Benefit Transfer (“EBT”) data was excluded from the scope of data included under the final rule, and urged the CFPB to include EBT data in future iterative rules to address this gap and extend the benefits of open finance to lower-income individuals.

A number of FDATA North America member companies also provided statements in response to the CFPB’s final Section 1033 rulemaking:

Betterment provided the following statement:

“Betterment joins FDATA in applauding the CFPB for its final rule on Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which secures Americans’ right to control their financial data. This rulemaking is an important step in expanding access to innovative and affordable financial services, including digital investment advice. We look forward to working with FDATA, the CFPB, and other stakeholders to implement and expand the rule to encompass investment and retirement accounts, which will help to more fully realize the promise of Section 1033.”

Brian Costello, Head of ByAllAccounts Data Aggregation Strategy & Governance, Morningstar Wealth, stated:

“Congratulations to the CFPB on the momentous milestone of publishing the final Personal Financial Data Rights Rule enacting Dodd-Frank 1033 Rule. U.S. consumers now have a legally-binding right to electronically share their own financial data with third-party financial services providers of their choice. ByAllAccounts looks forward to working with the Bureau to expand the covered accounts within the Rule to also include brokerage, retirement, and annuity accounts as outlined in our comment letter to the CFPB.”

Jason Rosen, Founder & CEO, Prism Data, stated:

“This is a transformational moment for financial services in the United States. By putting consumers in control of their personal financial data, the CFPB’s new rule will spur greater innovation and competition among financial providers and expand consumer access to safe financial products on better terms. And consumers aren’t the only winners: banks and lenders can now gain a significantly more comprehensive and accurate picture of their customers’ financial lives, unlocking opportunities to serve more people and better manage risk.”

John Pitts, Head of Policy, Plaid provided the following statement:

“Since day one, Plaid has sought to make it easy for consumers to securely access and share their financial data with the services that work best for them. Today’s announcement from the CFPB reaffirms that open banking in the U.S. benefits consumers, promotes a healthy financial services marketplace, and should be protected by law. The 1033 rule will usher in a new, more consumer-centric chapter of financial services in the U.S. and accelerate competition in payments, more inclusive access to credit, enable more advanced fraud fighting tools, and other innovations that benefit consumers. We look forward to this next era of open finance.”

Jane Barratt, Chief Advocacy Officer, MX, provided the following statement:

“For more than a decade, MX has been a leader in open finance and consumer-permissioned data sharing. We look forward to continuing to lead with privacy-first principles and ensuring our clients can meet these new compliance obligations and leverage consumer-permissioned data effectively and ethically.”

Alexandre Gonthier, Founder and CEO of Trustly, Inc., stated:

“Trustly, Inc. commends the CFPB on the release of its final rule for section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which helps solidify Open Banking by putting consumers in control of their financial data.  However, the rule fails to match Director Chopra’s lofty rhetoric on encouraging competition in payments and supporting pay-by-bank.

We were hopeful the CFPB would reconsider its proposal to allow tokenized account numbers (TANs) to be used in place of the consumer’s ACH account and routing numbers and are concerned by the final rule’s stance. Our position has been clear from the beginning – we’ve seen TANs serve as a new tool for fraudsters rather than safeguarding consumer information as intended. Additionally, we are disappointed by the CFPB’s final rule regarding the reauthorization of data sharing by consumers every 12 months. Consumers want to eliminate the friction in the payment process, and the final rule misses the mark in this area.”

Mit Shah, Co-Founder & COO, Method Financial, stated:

Method Financial applauds the CPFB for delivering a rulemaking that codifies the promise of Open Banking. Consumer financial health has been put front and center, with consumers able to access and share their financial data in pursuit of the most competitive financial products. Method appreciates the CFPB’s efforts to ensure that all consumers are able to access the benefits of Open Banking and to provide a clear standard for all financial institutions and data aggregators that serve them.

Contact: Laine Williams, (202) 897-4757,  [email protected] 

Washington, DC, October 16, 2024 – The Financial Data and Technology Association of North America (“FDATA North America”), a trade association representing more than three dozen financial technology and open finance companies, today submitted a comment in response to the Financial Data Exchange’s (“FDX”) application for recognition by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) as a standard-setting body (“SSB”) under Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The recognition of SSBs, defined under the CFPB’s final rule issued on June 5, 2024, is pivotal in the context of the Bureau’s forthcoming personal financial data rights rule.

In the letter, FDATA North America applauded FDX’s efforts to institute additional transparency, balance as it promulgates technology standards to enable safe and secure consumer-permissioned data sharing across the financial ecosystem. We emphasized that FDX’s proposed improvements to their governance structure will ensure broader representation of various stakeholders, including smaller entities and non-banks, across its decision-making processes and expressed our members’ eagerness to contribute to FDX’s important work.

FDATA North America also urged the CFPB to require that applicants for SSB recognition establish mechanisms that allow smaller market participants to review and provide input on existing technical standards promulgated prior to an entity’s application to the CFPB for recognition as an SSB. This approach would ensure that the CFPB’s commitment to balanced representation is reflected not only in future iterations to technology standards recognized under the CFPB’s Section 1033 rulemaking, but also to technology standards already in use in the ecosystem. Additionally, we emphasized that the success of the U.S. open finance ecosystem relies on balanced representation across all stakeholders to foster growth and innovation to benefit consumers.

FDATA North America expressed its appreciation for FDX’s commitment to supporting secure, consumer-permissioned data access and looks forward to continued collaboration to advance a robust and equitable standard-setting process.

A full copy of the letter is available here.

Contact: Laine Williams, (202) 897-4757,  [email protected] 

Washington, DC, October 16, 2024 – The Financial Data and Technology Association of North America (“FDATA North America”), a consortium of more than 30 financial technology companies providing consumers and small- and medium-enterprises with innovative financial products, services, and tools, today submitted comments to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (“OCC”), the Federal Reserve (“Fed”), and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”; collectively, “the agencies”) in response to their Request for Information (“RFI”) on bank-fintech arrangements involving banking products and services. In the letter, FDATA North America expressed concern that the agencies’ RFI failed to appropriately capture or distinguish among the breadth of bank-fintech relationships and encouraged the agencies to recognize the diverse benefits these collaborations bring to consumers, small businesses, and the broader financial marketplace.

FDATA North America highlighted that bank-fintech arrangements provide essential services beyond traditional banking, including personal financial management, lending, and payments, thereby fostering competition, reducing costs, and expanding access to financial services for underserved populations. In the letter, FDATA North America urged the agencies to defer oversight of consumer-permissioned data access arrangements to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), given the imminent finalization of the CFPB’s Personal Financial Data Rights rule. FDATA North America suggested that the agencies allow time for a thorough assessment of the CFPB’s final rule for all bank-fintech arrangements before considering further regulatory action.

A full copy of the letter is available here.

Contact: Laine Williams, (202) 897-4757,  [email protected] 

September 4, 2024, Washington, DC – The Financial Data and Technology Association of North America (FDATA), a consortium of more than 30 financial technology companies providing consumers and small- and medium-enterprises with innovative financial products, services, and tools, today submitted a comment in response to the Canadian Department of Finance’s consultation on Budget 2024 measures to deliver fairness for every generation.

In our submission, we urged the Department of Finance to:

1. Ensure All Small and Medium-Sized (“SME”) Accounts Are Included: It’s crucial that SMEs are explicitly included in the scope of Canada’s open finance regime, ensuring they can benefit from innovative financial solutions.
2. Mitigate Barriers to Entry for Smaller Participants: We advocate for a tiered accreditation approach that balances rigorous data security requirements with the need to support smaller market entrants, fostering innovation and competition.
3. Maintain a Focused FCAC Mandate: The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (“FCAC”) should maintain a clear and manageable role within the open finance ecosystem, avoiding an overly broad expansion of responsibilities.
4. Assign Liability to the Responsible Entity: Liability should rest with the entity responsible for any data breaches, ensuring that consumers and SMEs are protected and compensated fairly.

A full copy of the comment is available here.