by Joseph Facciponti

Joseph Facciponti (photo courtesy of the author)

The NYU Law Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement’s Executive Director attended the International Association of Privacy Professional‘s annual Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C., earlier this week. This post provides observations and highlights from the conference.

CFPB Director Rohit Chopra Highlights Priorities for Enforcement Policy, FinTech, and “Dark Patterns”

In a fireside chat, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra outlined key concerns and enforcement priorities for the agency.

On the subject of cryptocurrencies and banking, Director Chopra opined that much of the discussion around crypto was a “distraction” and that one actual source of his concern in this area was the comingling of banking and technology. Using as an example what he characterized as Meta’s “brazen” attempt to create its own currency – the unsuccessful Libra project – he highlighted widely-used technology-driven payment systems such as Apple Pay, Venmo, WeChat Pay, and others as posing potential privacy, safety and soundness, and fairness risks to consumers. For example, with the recent banking crisis as a backdrop, Director Chopra asked what would happen if there was a run on one of these payment systems, and what would happen to any money that consumers had stored with the networks. In a similar vein, Director Chopra inquired about the state of consumers’ rights to dispute fraudulent transactions on digital payment networks, wishing to see something similar to the rights consumers currently have with credit cards.

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