Linkage: Trump fires CFPB Director Chopra. Is consumer finance still protected?
Trump today fired the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Rohit Chopra. The CFPB was created by Dodd Frank re-regulation following the 2008 financial crisis, and is funded by the Fed rather than having to go through Congress for appropriations. Below is a Linkage roundup of today’s news, and I’m also including some of The Basis Point archive links on the CFPB.
Consumer financial protections are important, but the CFPB has been accused — first by the mortgage industry and then by the fintech and crypto industries — of regulation through enforcement. The last link below is a post from 2017 where I outline this in detail. With this context, you can see why many strongly agree with the headline of the second link below from the WSJ Opinion page: “Rohit Chopra Is Out. Now Shutter The CFPB.”
UPDATE 2/3/25: Treasury Chief Bessent Appointed Acting CFPB Director
- Trump fires the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau(apnews.com)
- Rohit Chopra Is Out. Now Shutter the CFPB.(wsj.com)
- Rohit Chopra letter to Trump on the day he's fired(x.com)
- Recap of some of the consumer financial protection actions Chopra took as CFPB director(politico.com)
- Always Bring Donuts To A Showdown (what happened last time Trump took over CFPB)(thebasispoint.com)
- Summary of CFBP enforcements against banks, lenders, and other financial services providers(consumerfinance.gov)
- Elizabeth Warren turns post-2008 mortgage crackdown playbook on crypto (2023)(thebasispoint.com)
- Chopra targets Big Tech for wading too far into financial services (2021)(thebasispoint.com)
- Summary of how CFPB did "Regulation Through Enforcement" in its early years (2017)(thebasispoint.com)