Obama plans Friday visit to Consumer Bureau

President Obama is scheduled to visit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Friday in Washington to make an announcement regarding consumer payments, multiple sources told The Hill.

CFPB director Richard Cordray sent an email to staffers on Thursday afternoon confirming the visit, according to a copy of the email obtained by The Hill.

{mosads}”I am pleased to announce that President Obama will be visiting our headquarters office … tomorrow morning for an event,” Cordray wrote in the email. “The event will take place … just before noon.”

A source familiar with the White House’s plans said that Target and Home Depot — companies which each recently had major data breaches — will be part of the administration’s announcement, though the companies’ involvement remains unclear. Spokespeople for Target, Home Depot and the White House declined comment.

The White House is considering requiring that most federal agencies giving out benefits on prepaid cards use ones that come embedded with a microchip, instead of or in addition to a magnetic strip on the back, The Hill first reported Wednesday.

White House officials are also considering creating a forum of sorts comprised of industry stakeholders and top administrative officials from the departments of Treasury, Homeland Security and Commerce, according to one source, who asked not to be named because of the nature of the discussions.

The change comes on the heels of massive data breaches at Home Depot, JPMorgan Chase and other businesses that have exposed millions of people’s personal and financial information and raised new concerns about the security of their data.

In response to the recent rash of hacks, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have proposed a host of legislative fix-its aimed primarily at how consumers are notified following a breach.

Republicans and Democrats mostly agree that the current data breach notification laws in each state present a compliance nightmare for businesses, and many have called for a national data breach notification law.

This post was updated at 10:00 p.m.