Top fintech and crypto companies on Wednesday urged President Donald Trump to stop American banks from charging fees for customer data.
Fintech platform Robinhood, cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz “were among a long list of companies, investors and lobbying groups” that wrote to the Trump administration, arguing that proposed fees by banks would “cripple” innovation and “may cause small businesses and financial tools to shut down,” Bloomberg reported.
JPMorganChase, the nation’s largest bank, has argued that they need to charge fintech companies and data aggregators, such as Plaid and MX, to recoup the cost of transmitting customer data to third-party platforms such as Robinhood and Gemini. PNC, a medium-size bank, has also considered charging similar fees.
The fintech and crypto companies believe that the fees would create another barrier for customers to use their data to connect to alternative platforms to the traditional banking system.
“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,” the companies and related associations wrote in the letter to the Trump administration.
They continued:
This is not a dispute over fair pricing; it is an anti-competitive move designed to consolidate power. It threatens to cripple innovative products and may cause small businesses and financial tools to shut down entirely. With these fees set to impact the market in September, the White House should act immediately. Account access fees are not permitted under the law, and if they are allowed to go into effect it will undermine the pro-innovation consensus your Administration is building.
“We cannot allow the most powerful, entrenched banks to close the door on a more open and modern financial system,” the letter concluded.
The conflict between the banking system and fintech centers around a Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that stipulated how customers can transfer data to third-party platforms. The CFPB plans to leave the rule as is while it seeks to update the rule.
“I think it’s just very transparent – they don’t want competition,” Andreessen Horowitz partner Alex Rampell, who signed onto the letter, said.
The chief executives of the Financial Technology Association (FTA) and the American Fintech Council signed onto the letters as well.
“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, the CEO of FTA, a fintech lobbying group, said.
Tyler Winklevoss, one of the founders of Gemini, told Breitbart News in July that these proposed fees run contrary to Trump’s goal of making America the “crypto capital of the world” and would only “enrich the bankers.”
Will Hild, the executive director of Consumers’ Research, said in a written statement:
This letter sent to President Trump is a wake-up call to every American who values competition and consumer choice. Big banks are trying to strangle innovation and rob Americans of their financial freedom. These new ‘account access fees’ are nothing more than a Wall Street shakedown designed to block competitors and keep consumers trapped in a system built for and by the big banks.
He added, “Known debanker JPMorgan wants to decide who gets to participate in the US economy. The Trump Administration should shut this down immediately. In America, consumers own their data — not the banks.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3
Read the full article here
