JPMorgan, Plaid, and the New Cost of Accessing Your Own Bank Data

Your financial data belongs to you — not the banks. That principle is now being tested. In July 2025, JPMorgan Chase data fees were introduced, charging for access to consumer bank account data — the very feeds that power accounting platforms, personal finance apps, and fintech services across the country.

Soon after, Plaid and JPMorgan signed a renewed data access agreement. Plaid will now pay JPMorgan for continued access, a cost that had historically been free. While framed as a move toward reliable and secure connectivity, this deal establishes a precedent: banks monetizing customer-owned data at scale.

Why This Matters for SMEs

For small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), this debate isn’t abstract policy — it’s day-to-day survival. Accounting is mandatory. Every company, whether a solo founder or a 50-person team, must keep accurate books to remain compliant with tax authorities, satisfy lenders, and build financial confidence. That process increasingly depends on automated bank feeds that pull transactions directly into accounting platforms like Fiskl.

When banks impose or increase fees for accessing those feeds, the costs don’t stop at the aggregators. They cascade down. A data connection that was once free can suddenly carry a price tag. Aggregators like Yodlee, which Fiskl relies on for JPMorgan access, may pass that cost on to fintech platforms. In turn, platforms face a choice: absorb unsustainable margins or pass the charges to their SME customers. Either way, the small business pays more — not for a new service, but simply to access its own information.

Consider the practical impact. A small consultancy paying $30 a month for accounting could see its costs creep to $40 or $50 if banking fees are embedded in subscription pricing. For a startup operating on razor-thin margins, those dollars aren’t trivial. They are the difference between hiring another contractor, buying new software, or deferring growth.

Beyond cost, there’s compliance risk. If access becomes too expensive, some SMEs may revert to manual uploads or delay reconciliation. That creates vulnerabilities: incomplete records, audit exposure, or stalled loan approvals. What should be a straightforward process — accessing the company’s own transaction history — becomes another barrier imposed by financial institutions.

The real danger is precedent. If one major bank successfully monetizes consumer-owned data, others will follow. What begins in the U.S. could ripple globally, creating a system where SMEs everywhere pay twice: once in banking fees, and again in accounting costs inflated by data access pricing.

JPMorgan’s Justification — and Its Risks

JPMorgan has defended its decision to impose fees with three main arguments: the sheer volume of API traffic puts strain on its systems, fraud linked to aggregator-initiated payments is rising, and the bank needs to recover the cost of its security and infrastructure investments.

It’s true that aggregators like Yodlee and Plaid generate billions of API calls each year. Every time a small business owner refreshes their accounting dashboard or a fintech app checks balances across accounts, that’s another call to a bank’s systems. At scale, this traffic is significant, and banks argue it requires expensive infrastructure to handle safely.

Fraud is another serious concern. When payments are initiated through third-party connections, liability disputes can arise — was it the bank’s system, the aggregator’s technology, or the fintech’s customer interface that failed? JPMorgan points to an uptick in fraud claims tied to these connections as justification for shifting some of the burden back onto the ecosystem that generates the risk.

But here’s the problem: these are real issues framed in a way that justifies monetization. Cost recovery for infrastructure and fraud mitigation is reasonable. Transforming data access into a new revenue line is not. And this distinction matters because the ripple effects land not on Plaid or Yodlee alone, but on the millions of SMEs who depend on downstream services.

The risk is systemic. Larger fintechs like Plaid can negotiate favorable terms or bundle costs across a massive user base. Smaller fintechs, operating on thin margins, cannot. And SMEs — already paying banks for accounts, platforms for subscriptions, and regulators through compliance fees — risk becoming the silent payer of last resort in a system designed to protect incumbents.

The first JPMorgan Chase assessments – which a Stripe executive called “extortionate” in an Aug. 29 letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – are expected to begin this September.

Plaid’s Complicated Track Record

It’s also worth remembering that Plaid itself has a history of mishandling data. In 2021, the company paid $58 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that accused it of collecting excessive data and misrepresenting how that data was used. As part of the settlement, Plaid agreed to improve transparency, minimize unnecessary data storage, and give consumers more control through tools like the Plaid Portal.

This history matters because it highlights a deeper problem. Banks are pushing to monetize access. Aggregators have been guilty of overreaching with data. And stuck in the middle are SMEs and consumers — paying higher fees while trust in the ecosystem is eroded from both sides.

The Regulatory Battleground: CFPB’s Rule 1033

At the center of this conflict is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Open Banking Rule (Section 1033). Finalized in late 2024, the rule mandates that banks must provide consumers with access to their financial data.

But the rule leaves room for interpretation. Banks argue that charging fees is a fair way to cover costs. Fintechs and advocacy groups counter that fees undermine competition and violate the spirit of open banking.

The JPMorgan-Plaid agreement complicates matters further by normalizing fees just as regulators are setting the rules. Unless the CFPB draws a clear line, banks will continue to test the boundaries, and “data tolls” could become the new standard — with SMEs left carrying the weight.

The CFPB’s Open Banking Rule 1033 didn’t appear in a vacuum. It was drafted to protect consumer choice and portability, modeled in part after the European Union’s PSD2 directive and the UK’s Open Banking framework. Both of those regimes mandate that consumers — and by extension the fintechs they authorize — can access financial data at no charge.

The U.S., however, is diverging. Banks have lobbied hard to frame data access as a “service” that justifies fees, citing costs of infrastructure and fraud mitigation. Fintech advocates argue that data access isn’t a service, it’s a right — comparable to accessing your own medical records.

This regulatory uncertainty creates room for banks like JPMorgan to experiment with fee-based structures. If JPMorgan Chase data fees stand without limits, other banks are likely to follow with similar tolls. If regulators don’t intervene, those structures risk becoming the de facto norm, not just in the U.S. but globally.

What’s Fair?

Fairness lies in recognizing that banks have legitimate responsibilities but drawing a hard line against turning those responsibilities into a profit engine.

It is fair for banks to recover the direct cost of running secure, high-volume APIs that allow data sharing. Maintaining those systems is expensive, and SMEs also benefit from knowing their data moves safely between banks and platforms. If banks can demonstrate real infrastructure or fraud-related costs, modest and transparent recovery mechanisms could be justified.

What is not fair is charging tiered fees based on the type of data or the volume of access, effectively taxing businesses for the complexity of their operations. For example, charging one rate for checking balances but a higher rate for accessing transaction histories or payment data turns essential accounting inputs into revenue streams. This isn’t cost recovery — it’s monetization, pure and simple.

It’s also unfair to push these costs indirectly onto SMEs, who already pay for bank accounts and then pay again through fintech subscriptions. Imagine being told you must pay your bank to see your own bank statement each month, and then also pay your accountant for processing that same data. That’s the model JPMorgan is moving toward — SMEs paying twice for the same information.

True fairness would follow the principle established in the EU under PSD2 and the UK’s Open Banking framework: data access is a consumer right. Banks are custodians of financial infrastructure, not gatekeepers of information that belongs to their customers. The cost of compliance and security should be built into the service of banking itself, not externalized onto the SMEs who can least afford it.

The Stakes for Innovation and SMEs

If this precedent is allowed to stand, the implications go far beyond JPMorgan and Plaid.

SMEs will face higher costs for accounting tools and reduced access to real-time data if platforms are forced to cut back features. Innovation across the fintech ecosystem will slow, because smaller players won’t survive the added cost burden. And market power will concentrate even further in the hands of a few large banks and aggregators.

This isn’t about fintech margins. It’s about whether small businesses can continue to afford the tools they need to operate, comply, and grow.

Where Fiskl Stands

At Fiskl AI Accounting, our mission is to make accounting accessible, automated, and affordable for SMEs worldwide. We connect to U.S. banks like JPMorgan through Yodlee, integrating secure connectivity into every plan.

Our stance is clear: SMEs should never be forced to pay extra to access their own data. We call on regulators to enforce Rule 1033 in a way that protects SMEs, prohibits exploitative fees, and ensures accounting data is treated as essential infrastructure.

We will continue to raise our voice on behalf of small businesses, because the right to access your own financial data is fundamental to running a business.

The Future of Data Access and Open Banking

The JPMorgan-Plaid deal is a line in the sand, not the final word. Over the next 3–5 years, three outcomes are possible:

• Higher SME Costs: If fee structures spread across banks, every SME that relies on connected accounting platforms, cash-flow tools, or fintech apps will face rising subscription costs. That could slow adoption of digital finance solutions — a setback for innovation.

• Fintech Consolidation: Smaller fintechs may not survive the added costs. Larger players with deeper pockets might absorb fees, but startups — often the source of breakthrough ideas — risk being squeezed out.

• Regulatory Intervention: If regulators enforce free consumer data access, banks will need to rethink how they cover infrastructure costs. This could accelerate investment in more efficient API frameworks and fraud prevention systems, without passing the bill to SMEs.

At Fiskl, we take a clear position: accounting is mandatory, access to your own data should not be optional or prohibitively priced. We integrate with Yodlee to ensure JPMorgan customers — and SMEs across the U.S. — can keep their books up to date without punitive costs. And we will continue advocating for SMEs’ right to affordable, transparent access to their financial data.

Your financial data belongs to you. Full stop. It’s time for the industry — and the law — to recognize it.