Tucson.com

By: Patrick M. Brenner

Washington is revisiting rules governing open banking and the outcome matters deeply for Arizona families. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) reconsideration of its Section 1033 data-sharing mandate gives policymakers a chance to protect the Arizonans most vulnerable to financial instability: those in rural banking deserts and tribal communities where access to affordable financial services remains limited.

The central question isn’t whether consumers should access their financial data. They should. It’s how to structure that access without sacrificing the security and stability that Arizona’s most underserved communities desperately need.

For Arizona’s rural and tribal communities, open banking could be transformative. Tribal nations and remote areas across Arizona have historically lacked reliable access to traditional banking infrastructure. In 2018, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated that nearly 395,000 Arizonans lived in a banking desert, meaning they did not live within 10 miles of a bank branch. Well-designed open banking rules could enable these communities to use the financial apps and digital services they’ve come to rely upon securely. But poorly designed rules, particularly those that don’t account for the genuine costs of secure data infrastructure, could discourage the very innovation and investment needed to reach these populations.