The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday announced its intention to release an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that seeks to provide individuals with more access to their financial records.
An ANPR is the first step in the rulemaking process and allows the CFPB to solicit comments and perspective from interested stakeholders that will help it shape a potential proposed rule. The CFPB, for example, issued an ANPR for its debt collection rule in November 2013. The proposed rule was released in May 2019, and the industry is awaiting the final rule, which is scheduled to be released in October.
In this case, the Bureau is looking to gather information to help it:
- Solicit input on ways that the Bureau might effectively implement the financial access rights described in Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Different market participants have helped authorized data access become more secure, effective, and subject to consumer control, the CFPB said in a release announcing the ANPR. The CFPB said it expects those trends to continue, but “also sees indications that some emerging market practices may not reflect the access rights described in Section 1033.”
- Seek information determining what kind of data might be covered under the rule as well as other factors, including security, privacy, effective consumer control over access and accessed data, and accountability for data errors and unauthorized access.
- Determine whether Section 1033 interacts with other laws, like the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the impact that uncertainty may have.
The CFPB held a symposium earlier this year on consumer access to financial records and released a summary report of that event in conjunction with announcing the coming of an ANPR.