Wall Street’s Latest Cash Grab Targets Everyday American Families

Every parent makes hundreds of decisions each day to keep family life moving. Paying for the things your family needs shouldn’t be one of the hard ones.

Whether you’re buying lemonade from the neighborhood kids, splitting a beach house with family or friends, or setting up autopay for swim team fees and guitar lessons, technology has made those moments simple. But that convenience could soon become more expensive.

The budgeting apps, payment services and savings tools many families rely on only work because parents can securely give them permission to access their own financial information. A little-known part of federal law, often referred to as open banking, protects that right.

But the big banks are pushing hard for a new rule that would allow them to start charging fees for that access. Those new costs are likely to ripple through the system, making the apps families use every day more costly.

Under the leadership of its CEO Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase has already indicated it plans to charge data aggregators for this type of access. Those costs could eventually be passed on to consumers. Instead of working to find ways to help families make things more convenient and affordable, the big banks are focused on extracting yet another fee that will be passed straight onto our families.

Parents should be able to decide how their own financial information is used without facing new fees simply because they’ve chosen to connect a budgeting or payment app.