The news: The American Bankers Association, the Bank Policy Institute, and Consumer Bankers Association defended their decisions to charge fees to fintechs in a letter responding to the Financial Technology Association’s recent plea to protect Section 1033.
How we got here: The FTA wants the CFPB’s Section 1033 open banking rules to survive Trump’s second term, guaranteeing fintechs free access to consumers’ personal financial information held by banks.
Per legal filings, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appears to be gearing up for its elimination.
Why banks are fighting back: JPMorgan Chase said it will start charging fintechs fees for access to its data, explicitly calling out Plaid for “massively taxing” the system with unnecessary pings. PNC Bank said it was considering following suit.
A letter cosigned by the ABA, the BPI, and the CBA suggests more banks are likely to announce fees if 1033 gets scrapped. The letter emphasizes banks’ track record of encouraging crypto and AI innovations while underscoring the precedent for charging to access data across industries.
Our take: Banks are in lock-step marching toward undoing Section 1033. As competing trade groups make appeals to President Donald Trump—whose own family has expressed support for the open banking rule—fintechs need to prepare for a post-1033 world.
This could mean introducing tiered subscriptions for some of their services to offset new costs or scrapping some of their less used services entirely. They could also lean into more easily monetizable products like co-branded credit cards that complement their suites of other financial services.
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