CFPB 1033 and AI agents: what the rewrite means
CFPB 1033 and AI agents: the open banking rule is on hold in court and being rewritten. What that means for connecting your bank to an assistant today.
The CFPB's open banking rule, section 1033, was meant to give you a legal right to share your bank data with the apps and assistants you choose. A federal court has put it on hold while the bureau rewrites it, so for now the rules of the road are set by your bank's terms and by the read-only connections banks say they still allow.
That matters this month because banks are writing AI-agent terms of their own at the same moment. Here is what 1033 is, where it stands, and what it means for connecting your accounts to ChatGPT or Claude.
What is CFPB 1033?
Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act says your bank must make your account data available to you and to authorised third parties you choose. The CFPB's rule turned that into detailed requirements for how banks share data, how third parties ask for it, and what they may do with it.
In plain terms, it is the US right to take your data to a service of your choice.
For years that sharing has happened through a mix of agreements between banks and data networks, and through screen scraping, where a service signs in with your password. The rule was meant to replace that patchwork with a standard, secure route, and to settle who may charge for the access.
Where does the 1033 rule stand now?
A federal court in the Eastern District of Kentucky has enjoined the rule, and the CFPB has been reconsidering it since August 2025. A revised proposal has not been published yet. Until it is, the bureau's original requirements are not in force, and banks are setting their own terms for who may access customer data and how.
An injunction pauses the rule, and it leaves the underlying idea open. The statute is still there, the bureau is still working on a replacement, and the revised proposal is expected this quarter. Anyone building on open banking is watching for it.
Does 1033 apply to AI agents?
The rule was written before assistants were connecting to bank accounts, so it speaks of third parties and authorised access and never of agents by name. The practical question for an assistant is the same as for any app: does the customer authorise the access, is it limited to what they agreed, and can they end it?
That is the test banks are applying to agents today.
It is also why the line banks draw sits between credentials and consent. Citi, Chase, Wells Fargo and Schwab object to an agent that signs in with your password. Chase has said that read-only access through open-banking providers is allowed, which is the model 1033 was built to make standard.
What does the rewrite mean for connecting my bank to ChatGPT or Claude?
It means the safest setup is the one that already matches where the rule is heading: read-only access, authorised by you in your bank's own sign-in, limited in scope and easy to revoke. Whatever the final text says, that route is unlikely to be on the wrong side of it, and it is the route banks say they accept.
A connection built on your password is the one exposed to every change. It breaks when a bank blocks logins, and under Wells Fargo's terms from 24 November 2026 or Chase's from 1 January 2027, it leaves you answerable for what the agent does. Who's liable when an AI agent uses your login sets this out.
How does Era fit in whichever way the rule goes?
Era is the authorised hub: you link each bank once through a regulated data network, signing in on the bank's own pages, and every assistant you use connects to Era. Your password never reaches an assistant, access is read-only unless you decide otherwise, and you can revoke any assistant, or disconnect a bank, in a step.
Era connects accounts across the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Spain, and 40+ countries in all, and the rest of the world has been working on open banking rules for years. If the US rule lands with a stronger standard, a hub already built on consented, read-only access is where it will be easiest to use.
- One approval per bank, however many assistants you use.
- Shared memory across Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Meta's Muse.
- Your financial health in figures, with the analysis behind them.
- Statements, payslips and tax forms in the Document Library.
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