Data privacy

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is telling financial institutions that they must safeguard customer data even when federal agencies request information in criminal investigations, addressing Republican concerns about debanking that arose after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

The Federal Housing Administration also is removing personally identifiable information from the electronic data set and improving cybersecurity more broadly.

The American Fintech Council wants Congress to amend the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to preempt state privacy laws with both entity-level and data-level exemptions, as well as eliminating restrictions on the secondary use of data.

Current and retired federal employees say Treasury officials granted Elon Musk improper access to federal financial records, violating privacy laws.

Potential cybersecurity and data privacy violations are among the many dangers of giving the Tesla CEO free rein over systems and data used for Social Security benefits and tax refunds. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a proposal to protect consumer data privacy and categorize data brokers that sell sensitive consumer data as "consumer reporting agencies" under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a move that could garner bipartisan support.

The bureau suggested this week that states should remove the exemptions banks enjoy from data privacy laws. California is a prime candidate to act.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra said opposition to the bureau's recently finalized open banking rule should be viewed as banks and other large firms attempting to quash competition and stymie consumer data protection.

A ban on screen scraping and new disclosures to consumers about data usage are among the new elements of the data protection rule.

JPMorgan Chase and bank trade groups criticized the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's open banking rule for not providing enough data security.