Warren, Wyden, Blumenthal Urge CFPB to Reinstate Personal Financial Data Rights Rule to Protect Consumers' Data Rights
“We are concerned that the Trump CFPB’s policymaking seems to be more driven by the see-sawing interests of big banks and other industry groups than with protecting consumers’ rights to their own data, as mandated by law.”
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a letter to Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Russell Vought calling for him to reinstate the Personal Financial Data Rights rule, which required banks and other data providers to provide consumers and their authorized third parties with access to their own data for free. The letter follows the CFPB’s decision to stop defending the rule in court and publish an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) with the intent of substantially revising the rule. The letter also serves as a comment pursuant to the ANPR, “to ensure that any proposal to implement Section 1033 protects consumers from fees and anti-competitive practices that would erode their data rights under the law.”
“We are concerned that the Trump CFPB’s policymaking seems to be more driven by the see-sawing interests of big banks and other industry groups than with protecting consumers’ rights to their own data, as mandated by law,” wrote the Democratic Senators. “We believe that the CFPB should reinstate the Personal Financial Data Rights rule promulgated in 2024.” The Senators asserted that: “Any significant dilution of its requirements would likely violate the law.”
The Senators urged the CFPB to not allow banks and other data providers to charge fees for third parties to access consumer data: “Large financial institutions have a monopoly over large swaths of consumer data and thus have the potential to drive out competitors and start ups in the data sharing market. Under these conditions, consumers would have less choice and would likely be forced to rely on either these institutions’ own products or the few that can afford the extraordinary access fees…. Big banks have shown that this outcome is likely without a strong Personal Financial Data Rights rule: they can, and will, impose fees high enough to cripple third parties working to provide consumers with access to their data.”
The Senators concluded: “As the CFPB considers input and comments in its rulemaking, it is critical that the Bureau consider more than just the voices of industry groups; consumer access to data is ultimately an exercise of consumer rights. As such, it is critical that any revisions the CFPB makes to the Personal Financial Data Rights rule recognize the importance of consumers being able to exercise their rights, which includes deciding how and by whom their data is used.”
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