Washington, D.C. — In a new letter out today, 15 organizations wrote to Acting CFPB Director David Uejio, urging him to quickly execute on a directive in President Biden’s Executive Order on competition policy that encourages the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect consumers’ financial data by issuing a strong rule under Section 1033 of Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. As the letter writers explain, this rule should ensure that consumers can “freely make choices about what data to share and with whom, and be able to stop sharing or have their data deleted at any time.”

Consolidation in the financial services industry has allowed big banks to amass vast amounts of power over consumers and their data. These financial institutions then use this power over personal data to bully consumers and make it increasingly more difficult for them to switch financial institutions or access their own data.

“With this rule-making, CFPB has an opportunity to put consumers in control of their own data and take on big banks as well,” said Economic Liberties’ Director of Policy & Advocacy Morgan Harper. “By executing on President Biden’s directive to address these anti-competitive practices, CFPB would not only put power back into the hands of consumers, but would also start to level the playing field for small- and mid-sized financial institutions currently struggling to compete with big banks. President Biden’s Executive Order made it clear that the monopolistic tendencies of big banks cannot continue and the CFPB must adopt this rule immediately.”

Read the letter here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

###