Financial Data and Technology Association of North America

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.

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

August 5, 2024, Washington, DC – The Financial Data and Technology Association of North America (FDATA), a trade association representing more than 30 financial technology companies and consumer-permissioned data access platforms in Canada and the United States, today submitted a comment in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB” or “Bureau”) proposed rule to limit creditors from obtaining or using information on medical debts for credit eligibility determinations under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”).

While FDATA North America takes no position on the underlying merits of the CFPB’s proposed rule, it raised significant operational concerns about the practical implementation of the rule for consumer-permissioned open banking platforms that function as Consumer Reporting Agencies (“CRAs”). FDATA North America underscored that absent an affirmative requirement for data providers to identify medical debts as such, the current lack of a uniform mechanism for open banking platforms to identify whether an account connected by a consumer is a medical debt presents a major compliance challenge.

FDATA North America highlighted that for open banking platforms to comply with the CFPB’s proposed medical debt rule, it is essential that lenders affirmatively identify accounts as medical debts whenever a consumer grants data access to a third-party platform. Without this requirement, platforms will struggle to determine with certainty whether an account is a medical debt, leading to compliance challenges with the Bureau’s proposed rule.

FDATA North America called for the CFPB to mandate that data providers within consumer-permissioned ecosystems disclose the type of account from which the consumer is seeking to share data to ensure effective compliance. This measure would ensure that open banking platforms, when regulated as CRAs, have access to the same account information currently available in the traditional CRA space.

A full copy of the letter is available here.

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

July 26, 2024, Washington, DC – The Financial Data and Technology Association of North America (FDATA) submitted to the Canadian House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) its recommendations in advance of the 2025 budget. Our submission emphasized the need for the rapid and well-governed implementation of Canada’s open banking system and the expansion of open banking into an open finance framework to drive innovation and competition in the financial sector.

We urged the Canadian government to:

• Include language in Budget 2025 to ensure the implementation of Canada’s open banking system, allowing both consumers and small business owners to have full access to its benefits and prioritizing the growth of Canada’s innovation economy.
• Outline the government’s approach to open finance, the next logical step in financial services. Budget 2025 should establish a timeline for expanding the framework to include additional types of financial accounts, ultimately encompassing any financial account controlled by a consumer or small business.
• Ensure that the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) governs the system in a manner that does not inadvertently dissuade smaller entities from participating.

In the submission, FDATA highlighted that Budget 2024’s delivery of Canada’s initial CDB framework marked an important milestone in a long, consultative journey. Budget 2025 should both ensure delivery of open banking in line with the government’s and the market’s expectations and build on this important progress, including unambiguously making small business accounts part of the first phase and ensuring that the FCAC’s enforcement of the system is appropriately tiered based on the size, complexity, and use case of participating entities.

A full copy of the submission is available here.

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

July 24, 2024, Washington, DC– The Financial Data and Technology Association of North America (FDATA), a trade association representing more than 30 financial technology companies and consumer-permissioned data access platforms in Canada and the United States, today submitted a comment in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB or Bureau) interpretive rule classifying Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) loans as Regulation Z-regulated products under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA).

FDATA North America commended the CFPB for classifying BNPL loans as Regulation Z-regulated products under the TILA, which will ensure that these loans are considered “covered data” under the Bureau’s forthcoming final rule implementing Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Section 1033). The Section 1033 rule will allow consumers to share their balance and transaction information across credit card, checking, and savings accounts with third-party financial providers of their choice, ensuring greater financial transparency and empowerment. The designation of BNPL loans will enable consumers to make more informed financial decisions and manage their finances more effectively when considering applying for, utilizing, and servicing BPNL loans.

As the leading trade association that has long advocated for the inclusion of all consumer financial accounts under the CFPB’s Section 1033 rule, FDATA North America supports this incremental step towards a more expansive Section 1033 rulemaking. FDATA North America encourages the Bureau to continuously broaden the types of accounts covered under its Section 1033 rulemaking over time, ensuring that all consumers can access and share their financial data digitally and benefit from important protections when they do so.

A full copy of the letter is available here.

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

June 20, 2024, Washington, DC – The Financial Data and Technology Association of North America (FDATA), a trade association representing more than 30 financial technology companies and consumer-permissioned data access platforms in the United States and Canada, today sent a letter to Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft in response to warnings the agency sent to state-registered advisors regarding potential investor harm associated with advisors’ use of technology-based tools to help manage their clients’ portfolios.

The Missouri Securities Division on May 23, 2024, sent warning letters to more than 40 state-registered advisors raising concerns about advisors using clients’ log-in credentials to access financial information with client consent.

In its letter, FDATA North America emphasized that allowing financial advisors to access and review clients’ financial information is essential for providing informed recommendations that improve financial outcomes for Missourians. FDATA North America also highlighted the potential negative impact of the Division’s warning, which discourages the use of third-party tools that can enhance clients’ investment and financial outcomes. FDATA North America reiterated its commitment to data privacy and information sharing while advocating for secure consumer-permissioned data access and urged the Missouri Securities Division to consider mandating, in alignment with forthcoming federal rules by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the promulgation of secure interfaces for consumer-permissioned data access for retirement and securities accounts, ensuring that consumers can safely share their financial data with third parties.

A full copy of the letter is available here.