Citizen Outreach Foundation President Chuck Muth has joined a powerful coalition of conservative groups demanding the scrapping of a Biden-era banking rule they call harmful to consumers and the financial system.
The Nevada-based organization signed onto a letter with 22 other major conservative groups telling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to reject what they see as government price controls disguised as consumer protection.
The letter states:
“We commend the bureau for acknowledging the flaws in the Personal Financial Data Rights rule promulgated under the Biden administration. We agree that the Biden open banking rule is unworkable, unlawful, and harmful to consumers and the financial system.”
What’s This Banking Rule About?
The Biden rule forces banks to share customer data with other companies for free. Think of apps like Mint or Credit Karma that help you track your money.
Right now, banks can charge these companies for access to your data. The Biden rule would make banks give it away at no cost.
The conservative coalition argues this goes way beyond what Congress intended:
“Congress gave bank customers the right to obtain their own data under 12 USC § 5533,”
The letter explains:
“Section 1033 of Dodd Frank was not intended to create an open banking regime whereby banks are compelled to share data free of charge to third parties, fintech firms, data aggregators, or any other commercial actors.”
Why Citizen Outreach and Others Are Fighting Back
Muth and the other conservative leaders see this as a backdoor government takeover of private business decisions.
They’re not mincing words about it:
“Mandating free data access for data aggregators will not empower consumers.
It is a backdoor price control that unfairly subsidizes data middlemen at the expense of banks and credit unions by forcing the expropriation of sensitive data.”
The coalition includes heavy hitters like Americans for Tax Reform, Americans for Prosperity, and the American Legislative Exchange Council. But Citizen Outreach’s participation shows how this fight reaches beyond Washington think tanks to grassroots conservative organizations.
Here’s how the scam works, according to the letter. Banks spend billions building secure systems to share your financial data safely. The government’s own numbers show this costs about $3.37 per customer each year. That might not sound like much, but big banks serve millions of customers.
The letter warns:
“This cost presents a significant potential burden for large institutions and G-SIBs serving tens of millions of customers, as well as a crushing blow to community banks and credit unions already dealing with high regulatory costs,”
The Real Cost of “Free” Data
The conservative groups point to a previous disaster as a warning. Remember the Durbin Amendment? It capped fees banks could charge stores for debit card transactions. What happened next?
The conservative colition stated:
“A similar situation played out with the enactment of the Durbin Amendment, which raised costs for consumers on checking accounts and other financial services. An open banking rule would shift the burden of data access costs onto every bank customer, including non-users of third-party services.”
Banks don’t just hand over your financial information easily. They build expensive computer systems to share data safely. If they can’t charge the companies using this data, where do you think they’ll make up that lost money? Higher fees for everyone else.
Security Concerns That Nobody’s Talking About
Here’s something that should worry every American. When your data gets shared with more companies, what happens if one gets hacked?
The letter addresses this scenario, stating:
“In the event of a third-party data breach, the finalized rulemaking does not specify which party bears liability and responsibility. If a bank shares data with a third-party that suffers a data leak, the bank could be held responsible even if the consumer authorized credential sharing with the third-party.”
So your bank could get blamed and sued even when some app company screws up and loses your information. That’s not consumer protection. That’s insanity.
Why This Matters to Limited Government Conservatives
Citizen Outreach and the other groups see this as much bigger than banking policy. It’s about whether government can force private companies to subsidize their competitors.
This is exactly the kind of regulatory overreach that groups like Citizen Outreach were formed to fight. It’s government picking winners and losers in the marketplace.
The letter states:
“While these brokers provide innovative solutions to their consumer niche, we do not believe that they should enjoy unfair advantages through mandates placed on other businesses,”
What Happens Next
The Trump administration now controls the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Acting Director Vought has already acknowledged problems with the Biden rule.
But Citizen Outreach and the coalition want more than fixes. “The Biden-era misstep on open banking should not be repeated,” they write.
“In the interest of consumer data privacy, we urge the CFPB to refrain from reviving the Biden-era price controls while it is considering revisions to the Personal Financial Data Rights rule.”
Banks and credit unions are watching closely. So are the tech companies that would benefit from free data access. This decision could reshape how financial technology works.
What Conservatives Can Do
Chuck Muth and the other conservative leaders suggest several actions. Contact your representatives in Congress. Tell them you oppose government price controls on banking data.
Support organizations like Citizen Outreach that fight these regulations. These groups need donations and volunteers to keep pushing back against regulatory overreach.
Watch your own bank fees carefully. If this rule stands, expect costs to rise in other areas to make up for the government-mandated freebies.
Stay informed about Consumer Financial Protection Bureau actions. This agency creates rules that affect every American’s financial life.
The battle over banking data might seem technical. But as Citizen Outreach and the 22 other conservative groups make clear, it touches core conservative values. Limited government. Free markets. Property rights.
“We urge the bureau to reject price controls for consumer data,” the letter concludes. That’s a principle worth fighting for.
Read the full letter, here: Oppose Price Controls for Bank Data
This article was written with the assistance of AI. Please verify information and consult additional sources as needed.
