Letter on the Proposed Interpretive Rule for Emerging Payment Mechanisms

Dear Acting Director Vought,

The American Bankers Association (ABA) appreciates the opportunity to submit comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) in the matter of the Proposed Interpretive Rule for Electronic Fund Transfers Through Accounts Established Primarily for Personal, Family, or Household Purposes Using Emerging Payment Mechanisms (Proposed Interpretive Rule). The document contemplates an interpretation of various terms found in the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) and its implementing Regulation E that may have the effect of extending Regulation E requirements, with an associated outgrowth of the Bureau's jurisdiction, to categories of products including stablecoins, video game tokens, certain types of credit card rewards, and securities/commodities under specific circumstances. The Bureau would undertake this expansion of regulatory reach on its own initiative. ABA urges the CFPB to withdraw the Proposed Interpretive Rule.

Without opining on the respective merits, appropriateness, and compatibility of applying Regulation E obligations (such as disclosures and an error resolution process) to the above product types and their underlying technologies, the Proposed Interpretive Rule is not the proper channel to pursue these changes given the expansion that would result. Instead, in accordance with the President's recent Executive Orders directing agencies to substantially scale back the number of regulations and to identify overreaching regulations, the CFPB should withdraw its proposal until such time that it more clearly lays out its statutory rationale.

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