ICBA urges community bank exemptions in 1033 rule

ICBA urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to exempt certain community banks from proposed standards for sharing consumer financial data.

ICBA Letter: In a comment letter on the bureau’s proposal to implement Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act, ICBA urged the CFPB to:

• Exempt community banks with less than $850 million in assets — which are defined as small businesses by the Small Business Administration — from a provision requiring institutions to create and maintain a third-party developer interface.

• Permit banks to charge third parties a reasonable fee for providing access to consumer information, which would help offset some of the costs of creating a developer interface without resulting in costs to the consumer.

ICBA Release: “We call on the CFPB to create meaningful exceptions and safe harbor protections that avoid disadvantaging community banks and the customers and communities they serve,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said in a national news release.

Background: Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act requires covered financial institutions to make available to consumers and authorized third parties certain data relating to consumers’ transactions and accounts. The CFPB’s proposal would require virtually every bank in the country to establish and maintain a “developer portal” that third-party companies could use to access consumer data with consumer authorization.

Previous ICBA Comments: In a comment letter last year responding to a previous CFPB outline of proposals, ICBA said the bureau’s rulemaking should resist requiring banks to provide information outside the scope of Section 1033, limit data requirements that might harm consumers and banks, and create exceptions and safe harbor protections tailored to community banks.

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