The CFPB’s final 1033 rule and the future of open finance

Today, we came one step closer to an open finance future as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a landmark consumer data rights rule affirming open banking in the United States. This rule ensures more consumers have a right to securely access and control their financial data.

We are encouraged by the CFPB’s efforts to promote consumer choice and competition and establish additional safeguards for consumers and our industry. In particular, this new regulation can help catalyze more choice and competition in areas like payments and lending - further supporting pay-by-bank as an alternative or supplement to cards, and recognizing the potential for transactions data and cash flow underwriting to help consumers access responsible credit and build a more inclusive system.

Road to implementation: Plaid compliance tools

New regulation can enhance financial services for consumers and the innovative businesses that serve them. At the same time, it can be challenging to navigate. 

Plaid is already supporting customers through this regulatory shift. Earlier this year, we launched several solutions to help customers prepare for new requirements ahead of the rule. These solutions are a mix of new offerings, as well as enhancements to our existing privacy and security tools, to help simplify the compliance work for Plaid customers. Plaid’s solutions for authorization and data management, record retention, and risk management will all align to the final rule. Customers can also use our 1033 readiness guide which we’ll continue to update with actionable steps to help with new 1033 requirements.

In addition, we recently launched our FDX-aligned Open Finance Solution suite, a set of free tools that enable financial institutions to more easily migrate to API connectivity, support risk management, and ensure insight into consumer connections across the Plaid Network. These solutions are available to any data partner, including banks of all sizes. We are already far along. Today, Plaid has 80% of its network on or committed to APIs, which includes thousands of financial institutions leveraging Plaid API connectivity today and thousands more that are readily equipped to transition to and leverage Plaid APIs through our platform partners.  

We are also pleased to see the 1033 rule provide welcome protections aligned with much of Plaid's work to put consumers in control of their data and to build solutions like Plaid Portal, which helps consumers view and control connections they’ve made through Plaid. Given our role in the ecosystem, we bake consumer transparency and control into everything we build and are excited to see the bar being raised across the industry. 

What’s next: Securing an open finance future

Our commitment is to an open finance future that expands across consumers’ financial lives. The 1033 rule is a historic moment for our industry—a giant step toward the consumer-centric vision that we spend every day working with you to build. This will be a powerful catalyst for choice and competition and deliver even better outcomes for consumers in the years to come. We can’t wait to take the next step with you. 

We’ve already been investing in making the transition easier for our customers and data partners. Now that the rule is final, we’ll be able to do even more for you. Read more about our compliance solutions for customers and see our open finance solution suite for data partners.