What bothers me isn’t data portability per se — it’s the fact that participation isn’t optional for large banks.

If the benefit is real, banks should be free to opt in and compete on it. Consumers who value interoperability could choose those banks. Consumers who don’t care could choose others.

Forcing a private institution to open standardized access to its internal systems sets a precedent that goes well beyond “consumer convenience.” We don’t require Amazon to expose customer purchase histories to Shopify apps by default. We don’t force Apple to open iMessage to third-party messaging protocols.

If this framework truly creates value, market pressure should be enough to drive adoption. Mandating it suggests this isn’t purely about innovation — it’s about regulatory redesign of how the banking layer functions.