WASHINGTON – Tim Pawlenty, the head of the Financial Services Roundtable and former Minneosta governor, sent a letter Monday to President-elect Donald Trump requesting that he take steps to harmonize government cybersecurity requirements.
"In light of the financial service industry's vital role in processing mass volumes of transactions necessary for the economy to function for consumers and business, it is critical that response and recovery roles be fully clarified in advance," wrote Pawlenty and Christopher Feeney, president of BITS, the technology policy division of FSR.
The group represents large financial services companies.
Trump included improving cybersecurity in his "100-day" plan, but FSR highlighted that "an estimated 85% of the nation's critical infrastructure is owned by private entities" and that the government and private sector should work together to prevent cyberattacks.
Such a move would seem to play well with credit unions, who -- along with both the Credit Union National Association and the National Association of Federal Credit Unions -- have lobbied Congress for years to require stricter data security standards. Chief among those would be more stringent requirements for retailers, placing the responsibility for financial losses from any data breach on the retailer, rather than on financial institutions.
The group also called for the creation of a CEO Executive Council that would be made up of financial services CEOs and leaders from relevant government agencies to improve dialogue between government and the private sector.
The council would also work to streamline cybersecurity requirements, which are often overlapping between different regulators.
"We support sound cyber regulations and related oversight, but request that your administration undertake a comprehensive review of the need to align existing requirements against widely adopted cybersecurity frameworks such as the joint industry-government developed NIST Cybersecurity Framework," the letter said.
