Statement of Joint Principles for Ensuring Consumer Access to Financial Data

"Current State: Several industry working groups have been established recently to develop standards for data access in the financial services ecosystem. Through our participation in many of these forums, we are concerned that the interests of consumers are not being adequately prioritized. In particular, data access standards must recognize consumers’ needs to access and use their data for applications that they have determined to be beneficial to them The principle that consumers own their own data and can access and use it freely and securely to manage their financial wellbeing is not just theoretical or hypothetical. Several financial institutions continue to demand, through proposed bilateral agreements with aggregators and other third-party providers, significant restrictions that would limit the types of data their customers would be permitted to access and the types of applications their customers would be permitted to use. The financial technology industry has created incredible benefits for consumers through innovative financial tools. To ensure continued innovation in the financial services market, our firms jointly propose the following high-level principles that align with the design of open banking ecosystems globally, that must be the cornerstone of any successful data access regime in the United States. This Secure Open Data Access (SODA) framework is a set of principles for ensuring open data access and financial data security in the ecosystem, with the ultimate goal of protecting consumers’ right to access innovative tools and services that improve their financial well-being...."