Top fintech and crypto executives urged the Trump administration to block US banks from charging fees for access to customer data, levies that strike at the heart of their business models.
Klarna Group Plc, Robinhood Markets Inc. and crypto exchange Gemini were among a long list of companies, investors and lobbying groups that signed a letter sent Wednesday to President Donald Trump, arguing that the proposed fees would “cripple” innovation and “may cause small businesses and financial tools to shut down entirely.”
JPMorgan Chase & Co. has told fintechs and the data aggregators they rely on that the bank’s customer account information will no longer be accessible without a charge. JPMorgan, the biggest US bank, views the data aggregators as freeloaders of sorts who access data without paying and then charge their fintech clients for it. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. is considering charging similar fees.
“We urge you to use the full power of your office and the broader administration to prevent the largest institutions from raising new barriers to financial freedom,” they said in the letter. “We cannot allow the most powerful, entrenched banks to close the door on a more open and modern financial system.”
Rules put in place by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under former President Joe Biden have been at the center of a debate about how best to share and protect customers’ personal financial data. The CFPB under Trump has said it plans to leave the rules in place while it crafts new ones more in line with its policy goals.
Cryptocurrency executives including brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss signed on to the letter, as did the chief executive officers of Kraken and Paradigm and payments firms Adyen NV, PayPal Holdings Inc. and Stripe Inc.
“I think it’s just very transparent – they don’t want competition,” Andreessen Horowitz partner and letter signatory Alex Rampell said in an interview.
The CEOs were joined by trade groups including the Financial Technology Association and the American Fintech Council.
“They’ve seen what the power of open banking and what open finance can do, so they want to ensure that incumbent institutions or incumbent finance aren’t preventing that innovation from occurring,” Penny Lee, CEO of the fintech lobbying group FTA, said in an interview.
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