Plaid writes to CFPB with recommendations for consumer data access right
Ellie Duncan | News
27 Jan 2023
Plaid has written to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the US, outlining its recommendations to support “a vibrant, consumer-centric fintech ecosystem”.
The letter is in response to the CFPB’s call for stakeholder feedback on personal financial data rights rulemaking.
In the letter, signed by Plaid’s global head of policy John Pitts and Ben White, policy and technical standards, they write: “We recommend that the Bureau issue a rule that: requires data providers to implement policies that enhance consumer access to information; ensures third parties have appropriate authorization management, privacy, and security policies; and prohibits anti-competitive conduct that interferes with consumer and authorized third-party access.”
In October last year, the CFPB set out several options to strengthen consumers’ access to, and control over, their financial data, prior to issuing a proposed data rights rule that would implement section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act.
At the time, CFPB director Rohit Chopra, said: “Dominant firms shouldn’t be able to hoard our personal data and appropriate the value to themselves.
“The CFPB’s personal financial data rights rulemaking has the potential to jumpstart competition, giving Americans new options for financial products.”
Data aggregator Plaid has thrown its support behind “a comprehensive financial data access right”.
In a blog on the Plaid website, White wrote that, across the ecosystem, companies should inform consumers about the “information being collected, how it will be used, and how consumers can disconnect their data when they’re done using a product or service”.
He said the other recommendations that Plaid had made to the CFPB were to ensure consumers have consistent data access, no matter where they manage their money, protect consumers’ data access while supporting the industry shift to APIs, and to set clear standards and supervise data aggregators.
