CFPB to initiate ‘accelerated’ process for new open banking rule

The CFPB will issue a new open banking advanced notice of proposed rulemaking within three weeks, according to a court filing Tuesday. This is a win for the credit union industry, as the rule as finalized in 2024 presented numerous compliance and privacy concerns America’s Credit Unions has raised with policymakers. America’s Credit Unions will engage the bureau in the rulemaking process to ensure the expedited timeline does not impact the quality of the rule nor its implementation.

The rule requires financial institutions with more than $850 million in assets to provide access to certain consumer data upon receiving a request from an authorized third party at no cost to the third party. The CFPB, in a May court filing, argued that the rule is “unlawful and should be set aside.”

America’s Credit Unions wrote to the administration Friday, encouraging it to continue with rescinding the rule.

The bureau’s Tuesday filing asks the court to stay a current challenge to the rule, as “the Bureau has now decided to initiate new rulemaking to reconsider the Rule with a view to substantially revising it and providing a robust justification. The Bureau seeks to comprehensively reexamine this matter alongside stakeholders and the broader public to come up with a well-reasoned approach to these complex issues that aligns with the policy preferences of new leadership and addresses the defects in the initial Rule.”

Within three weeks, the bureau “plans to issue an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking that will serve as the starting point of an accelerated rulemaking process that the Bureau envisions culminating in a new final rule that substantially revises the Rule under review.”

The CFPB's new rulemaking may make the pending lawsuit moot. If the stay is granted, the CFPB will file status reports every 90 days to keep the court appraised of the progress of the rulemaking.