Banks Move to Charge Investors for Access to Their Own Financial Data
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RIABiz. (2026, July 30). JP Morgan, Fidelity, and Schwab (and the like) are set to rake in billions of dollars in fees, charging people to use their own data; that might sound bad, but experts say the banks mostly wear white hats on this issue. RIABiz. https://riabiz.com/a/2026/7/30/jp-morgan-fidelity-and-schwab-and-the-like-are-set-to-rake-in-billion-of-dollars-in-fees-charging-people-to-use-their-own-data-that-might-sound-bad-but-experts-say-the-banks-mostly-wear-white-hats-on-this-issue
Wall Street and Main Street firms including Schwab, Fidelity, and JP Morgan are positioned to prevail in a contest over the right to charge investors potentially billions of dollars to access their own financial data.
New CFPB rules may permit banks to levy fees on data aggregators for access to customer financial information.
The stated purpose of these fees is to incentivize responsible data access and to fund the underlying data infrastructure.
Experts anticipate that the final rule will amount to a "structured fudge" that favors the banks.
Incoming CFPB Director Brian Johnson is expected to settle on an arrangement that angers some fintechs while systematizing the flow of quality data into the market.
Firms such as Schwab and Fidelity have launched API initiatives to curtail screen scraping, rewarding some but not all aggregators with cleaner data.
Critics, including Tyler Winklevoss, argue that the banks are removing consumers' ability to access banking data for free through third-party apps like Plaid and imposing exorbitant fees instead.