The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Thursday issued a series of orders to collect information on the business practices of large technology companies operating payments systems in the U.S. The orders are issued pursuant to Section 1022(c)(4) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act, and initial orders were sent to Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, PayPal, and Square.
According to the CFPB, the information will help it “better understand how these firms use personal payments data and manage data access to users” to ensure adequate consumer protection.
“We appreciate the CFPB taking actions to level the playing field between regulated financial institutions and emerging technologies that do not face the same scrutiny from consumer protection rules and regulations,” said CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle. “CUNA supports the ability to policymakers to look closely at regulatory gaps that could be exploited by fintech and other entities.”
The CFPB also said it be studying the payment system practices of Chinese tech giants, including Alipay and WeChat Pay.