The CBA joined the ABA and state bankers associations as signatories on a letter to Chairman Janet Yellen and the entire board of governors of the Federal Reserve, opposing the views of Sens. Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Al Franken (D-MN) who recently called for increased scrutiny on payment card issuing banks and networks.  

The associations noted that Durbin and Franken had written Yellen “seeking information from the board on the data security efforts of banks, along with an implicit urging for greater oversight of financial institutions.” The groups described the letter as “a thinly-veiled effort to once again advance the regulation of interchange under the guise of current concerns over data security.”

The letter also points out that the financial services industry accounted for only 3.7% of last year’s data breaches, but other industry groups accounted for 86% of all data breaches in 2013.