Banks Respond to FTA Letter that Seeks to Mislead Trump Administration about Open Banking

The Financial Technology Association teamed up with an interesting mix of data aggregators and fintech companies to issue a letter to the President today urging the Administration tto undermine free markets and engage in government price fixing. The American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute and Consumer Bankers Association issued this response:
 
Banks don’t charge consumers fees to access their data, and because of banks’ innovation and investments in secure systems, consumers have access to more financial products and secure services than ever. Today’s letter is another extraordinary example of data aggregators and middlemen trying to mislead the Administration into supporting Biden-era policies for personal profit and the right to free ride off the major investments banks have made in protecting consumers’ data. The double standard these companies want to perpetuate, where they may charge fees for service while banks are expected to provide the same service to these private companies for free, is absurd. The Administration has taken bold actions to strengthen U.S. competitiveness, enable innovation and protect consumers from bad actors. We look forward to seeing a personal financial data rights rule that comports with the statute, protects consumers and ensures a level playing field to encourage innovation, a process the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has already begun.
 
Here are the facts: 

• Banks have strongly supported the Administration’s effort to rescind regulatory restrictions on banks engaging with crypto companies.
• Banks have also strongly supported the White House’s efforts to enable A.I. innovation. 
• Over 120 data aggregators currently connect financial data across providers. Plaid alone connects to more than 200 million bank accounts. 
• Financial Data Exchange, a nonprofit created through a bank-fintech partnership, has built a secure API linking more than 114 million accounts. 
• Banks process billions of requests from large fintech companies every single month. Processing these requests comes at a cost. 
• Charging for API access is standard for almost every major company, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, X (formerly known as Twitter), Google, and others, including companies represented in the FTA letter.