JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in America, has announced plans to start charging fintech companies millions of dollars a year for access to customers’ data. The move is seen as a major escalation in the ongoing battle between financial services incumbents and challenger fintechs.
The bank’s decision comes after President Trump’s administration repealed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that prohibited banks from charging consumers for their data. Under this new arrangement, JPMorgan Chase will charge data aggregators like Plaid a staggering $300 million annually, according to sources briefed on the pricing sheet.
Plaid’s estimated annual revenue is just over $400 million, making the proposed fee more than 75% of its total income. Fintech executives believe that this high price could make it unfeasible for them to offer certain features and leave consumers worse off.
JPMorgan Chase claims that the new fees are necessary to regulate excessive data requests from fintechs, which currently pull JPMorgan Chase’s customers’ data nearly two billion times a month. The bank argues that these fees will ensure that data is provided only when customers request it.
However, Plaid and other fintech companies disagree, arguing that the data belongs to consumers, not banks. They believe that JPMorgan Chase should develop a new data strategy that benefits consumers, rather than charging them directly.
Other big banks are expected to follow suit, with PNC Bank’s CEO already considering levying similar fees. Fintech executives and regulatory experts are now hoping to negotiate these fees down, potentially using a Trump-style approach of starting high but being willing to go lower.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2025/07/21/why-jpmorgan-is-hitting-fintechs-with-stunning-new-fees-for-data-access