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Top US Consumer Finance Regulator Sets Target on Big Tech Oversight

Companies with banking and wallet tech like Apple and Google set to be under more scrutiny.

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The Story: On Tuesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a proposal that would give it new powers to oversee tech companies like Apple and Google.

The top consumer finance regulator in the US argues that big tech companies that offer banking and wallet technology should be more scrutinized.

The proposal outlines protocol that will mirror the regulatory scrutiny banks and credit unions are currently subject to. And its goal is to extend US consumer protection laws onto companies like Apple and Google that have millions of users transferring money and making payments on a daily basis.

To be subject to the bureau’s new rules, companies must be above a five-million-customer-transactions-a-year threshold. Big names that qualify include Apple, Google, Cash App, and Venmo. According to the CFPB, there are 17 companies that qualify, and those 17 make up almost 90% market share.

CFPB director Rohit Chopra is fearful of the reach and strength these non-bank tech companies have on the financial system, and believes that the US is “lurching toward a consolidated market structure, like the one that has emerged in China, that blurs the lines between payments and commerce and creates the incentives for excessive surveillance and even financial censorship.”

The CFPB believes that having banks and non-banks adhering to the same rules would “promote fair competition” between the two industries.

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