The chair of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) wrote to Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Russel Vought to urge the agency to finalize a pending open-banking rule “as soon as possible.”
“There’s no way to connect your existing bank accounts to your preferred digital asset exchanges without the open banking rules of the road,” the letter said. “The CFPB has an opportunity to protect innovation by establishing clear guidelines that put consumers in charge of their own data, broadly define “consumer” in a way that allows individual consumers to utilize third party tools they need (with proper authorization and disclosures) to access digital assets and manage their financial future.
The open-banking framework was first finalized in October 2024 under then-President Biden. It allowed consumers’ to share financial data with third-party apps via APIs and is considered a critical bridge to connect crypto accounts with traditional bank deposits.
On the day it was finalized, however, the Bank Policy Institute and the Kentucky Bankers Association filed a lawsuit against CFPB. The suit claimed the rule would permit data sharing without proper oversight, increase the fraud risk by allowing unsafe practices, and force banks to provide free access to systems they have invested significant resources to secure.
JPMorgan said in July it planned to start charging fintech companies for access to its customers’ account data, according to Bloomberg.
Read more: CBA Urges CFPB to Rebalance Data Rights Rule to Protect Consumers, Market Competition
The Trump administration was originally on-board with the banking industry’s effort to roll back the rules. But it changed course in July and asked the court hearing the lawsuit for “time to reconsider” the rules under Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act requiring the CFPB to ensure consumers could access and own their own financial data.
“In light of recent events in the marketplace, the bureau has now decided to initiate a new rulemaking to reconsider the rule with a view to substantially revising it and providing a robust justification,” the agency said in a court filing.
U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves paused the lawsuit and granted the CFPB’s request for more time. The agency opened a comment period on proposed revisions in August, which closed on October 21, the same day Lummis sent her letter.
“Ranchers, farmers, and mom and pop shops across Wyoming often rely on seasonal or irregular income,” her letter noted. “Fintech tools can provide more flexible payment, financing, and invoicing options that align with that cash flow… but only if consumers have control over their data to use these tools.”
The letter accused the banking industry of wielding restrictions on fintechs’ access to customer data for political purposes.
“Large banks have shown they’ll restrict access for political reasons, targeting industries and individuals they disagree with, including gun manufacturers, digital assets, churches, and even President Trump,” she wrote. “The CFPB has an opportunity to protect innovation by establishing clear guidelines that put consumers in charge of their own data, broadly define “consumer” in a way that allows individual consumers to utilize third party tools they need (with proper authorization and disclosures) to access digital assets and manage their financial future.”
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