The Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness (“CCMC”) appreciates the opportunity to submit comments to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) regarding the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Fees for Instantaneously Declined Transactions (“Proposed Rule”).[1] The CFPB proposes to prohibit covered financial institutions from charging nonsufficient funds (“NSF”) fees when consumers initiate payment transactions that are instantaneously or near-instantaneously declined. This Proposed Rule is unnecessary, speculative, and rests on an improper interpretation of the statutory prohibition of abusive acts and practices. It is apparent that the true purpose of this rulemaking is to allow the CFPB to put into regulation an inappropriate reinterpretation of abusive acts or practices that it had previously articulated in the 2023 Policy Statement on Abusiveness.[2] The Chamber is concerned that the rulemaking is not evidenced-based, would inhibit the use of products that are alread
