In Louisiana, we know our businesses and families do best when Washington doesn’t meddle in our state’s affairs. Limited government interference and free market principles allow our state to thrive, and the evidence speaks for itself: This year, Louisiana entered the top ten states for doing business for the first time, thanks to pro-growth policies and President Donald Trump’s efforts to rein in an abusive federal bureaucracy.

Under former President Joe Biden, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a sweeping and illegal “open banking” rule known as Section 1033. This rule would have counteracted Louisiana’s free market values by mandating that banks hand over consumers’ financial data to data middlemen free of charge and allow them to continue accessing that data as often as they’d like, for any reason, including their personal profit. It was a textbook example of how Washington had lost its way.

Fortunately, earlier this year, the Trump administration correctly determined that Section 1033 was unlawful and that the CFPB had overstepped its authority. They weren’t alone in that judgment. A federal judge with decades on the bench has agreed, noting that the CFPB failed to consider the impact of its “open banking” mandate on Americans’ data security.

Freed from the rule, the free market is proving itself capable of working out its own solutions. According to press reports, banks and financial technology, or fintech, companies have negotiated voluntary agreements on their own, setting clear operating standards for when consumers direct their bank to share information, how often that information can be accessed and at what cost to the company. In turn, this produces better outcomes for banks, fintechs and, most importantly, Americans.

Yet even now, some in the fintech industry claim they can’t survive without the mandate and price caps. That claim isn’t just wrong, it’s fearmongering designed to pressure the Trump CFPB into adopting the worst parts of a bad rule that benefits fintechs and data middlemen, not consumers.

As recently as earlier this month, the CFPB said it was considering putting some form of the rule back into effect.

This puts the CFPB at a critical juncture. It can respect the repeal of Section 1033 and let these voluntary agreements continue to evolve, in other words, let the free market work as intended. Or it can try to resurrect the mandate and blow up the progress that has already been made. Moving backward would send a dangerous message that Washington will interfere in favor of certain private industries even when the market is functioning exactly as it should.

So, what’s at stake? Section 1033 has zero consideration for consumer data security and it guaranteed data middlemen more access to your financial information — for free. Worse, data middlemen are not held to the same legal standards to protect that data as banks. That increases your risk exponentially. As the court observed, that’s not consumer protection, that’s a giveaway.

President Trump’s move to pause the rule has proven that a limited government is a thriving government. He paved the way to allow banks and fintechs to craft solutions organically and as intended by the free market. Now is the time for the CFPB — under new leadership — to affirm its priorities with a new rule that supports private business solutions and real protections for consumers.

At the end of the day, I don’t want the government picking winners and losers in private industry, and I certainly don’t appreciate fintechs and data middlemen using the false arguments of “data freedom” and “consumer empowerment” when the reality is that they want to profit off our data for free and without any guardrails.

Louisianans feel the same way. We want control over our own information, with a system that keeps it safe. When that happens, everyone benefits. Reimposing Biden’s Section 1033 mandate would tell businesses that Washington bureaucrats are back to business as usual, creating uncertainty and undermining the foundations of an innovation economy: free markets.

It’s time to trust the free market and the American people. Washington had its chance, and the result was a rule that put Americans’ data last. The free market has shown it can do better. Now the CFPB should step back and let it.

Roger F. Villere Jr. is the former chairman of the Republican Party of Louisiana. 

Photo provided by Roger Villere