Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By: Chris Reader

At the Institute for Reforming Government, we work to break down barriers and unnecessary red tape that stand in the way of Wisconsinites achieving the American Dream. That means questioning whether regulations, even when well-intended, risk creating new costs or unintended consequences for consumers.

One such instance is a little-known provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the landmark financial reform law enacted after the 2008 crisis. The law included a provision in its Section 1033 requiring financial institutions to make consumer account and transaction data available, at the customer’s request, to authorized third-party services the consumer chooses. This includes personal finance apps and digital payment platforms.

Congress never intended this requirement to fuel an industry devoted to collecting and monetizing sensitive banking data, nor to grant those firms unlimited, free access without meaningful liability. But that’s exactly what happened in late-2024 when the Biden Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its so-called open banking rule.