REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsWASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The top U.S. consumer financial watchdog on Tuesday proposed to regulate tech giants' digital payments and smartphone wallet services, saying they rival traditional payment methods in scale and scope but lack consumer safeguards.
In a statement on Tuesday, Chopra said the tech sector had expanded into financial services traditionally provided by the closely regulated banking sector.
"Today's rule would crack down on one avenue for regulatory arbitrage by ensuring large technology firms and other nonbank payments companies are subjected to appropriate oversight," he said.
Representatives of Big Tech companies have previously highlighted their efforts to protect consumer data.
The agency said the rule would also foster competition by ensuring that both traditional financial players and the tech sector were equally subject to the same oversight.
Persons:
Dado Ruvic, Block's, CashApp, Rohit Chopra, Chopra, CFPB, Lindsey Johnson, Douglas Gillison, Hannah Lang, Chris Prentice, Matthew Lewis, Mark Potter, David Gregorio Our
Organizations:
PayPal, REUTERS, Rights, Consumer, Apple, Big Tech, Consumer Bankers Association, Electronic Transactions Association, Thomson
Locations:
Washington, New York