Letter to CFPB on the CFPB’s Inquiry Into Big Tech Payment Platforms

Comment Intake – Statement into Big Tech Payment Platforms
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
1700 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20552
Re: Docket No. CFPB-2021-0017
[email protected]

To Whom It May Concern:

The American Bankers Association (ABA), the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), and the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) appreciate the opportunity to submit comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in response to CFPB's notice and request for additional comments regarding CFPB's inquiry into big tech payment platforms. As we have previously stressed, and recent crypto events demonstrate, consumers can face appreciable risks when underregulated nonfinancial companies achieve significant scale as de facto financial intermediaries, including for payments.

Our members believe that regulators must move beyond monitoring nonbank payments markets and toward action that ensures nonbank payments do not develop into full-fledged shadow banking. A series of actions by CFPB indicate that the agency is accelerating its scrutiny. Last month, CFPB published a final rule amending its procedural rule on supervision of nonbank entities based on risk factors and additionally has commenced its rulemaking on personal financial data rights, which necessarily will include nonbank participants in the ecosystem. We urge CFPB to continue to increase its oversight until all consumers are protected at a consistent level, no matter the legal structure of the entity.

One year ago, ABA, CBA and CUNA applauded CFPB's initial inquiry into the payment platforms of the largest information technology companies (big techs) as an urgently needed step forward in ;the federal government's oversight of increasingly powerful nonbank payments providers. The comment record is clear evidence of widespread concern from members of the public about how big tech entities are positioned to use their scale and other advantages to pursue relentless collection, accumulation, and monetization of personal data, and other advantages made possible only through their nonfinancial products.

America's payments system, built in large part by banks, is competitive, increasingly fast, and affordable. Paying with your bank or credit union is easy and getting easier. It is also becoming safer and less expensive. Bank and credit union payments provide unparalleled value to all parties in the ecosystem. Our members are in payments for the business of payments and understand the need to provide consumer protection, privacy, and data security; contrariwise, big tech is getting into payments to buttress their other core businesses, and to obtain access to more data about the lives of Americans.

The financial services industry's payments agenda is simple: strong consumer protection, fair and consistent rules, funds that are safe and secure, and transactions paid through fair pricing rather than by the selling of consumer data. As shared last year, ABA, CBA, and CUNA support CFPB's focused efforts to prevent regulatory arbitrage and the exploitation of consumers and their information by big techs that are attempting to capture the most valuable parts of the payments chain for themselves rather than building inclusive ecosystems for all. To that end, CFPB should ensure potential consumer protections are applied consistently to all companies offering payments products and financial services, including big techs.

Download the comment letter to read the full text.