Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Trump/Musk/DOGE kills Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The CFPB was created after the 2008 financial meltdown to strengthen consumer protections for consumers. Trump/Musk/DOGE seeks to end this agency. Trump appointed Russel Vought, a primary author of Project 2025, as acting head of the CFPB.

Some actions of the CFPB include: Capping credit card fees, and excluding medical debt from credit reports,

What does the CFPB do?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was set up to protect consumers against various types of fraud and financial exploitation.

The CFPB was created to provide a single point of accountability for enforcing federal consumer financial laws and protecting consumers in the financial marketplace. Before, that responsibility was divided among several agencies. Today, it’s our primary focus.

Our work includes:

Rooting out unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices by writing rules, supervising companies, and enforcing the law
Enforcing laws that outlaw discrimination in consumer finance
Taking consumer complaints
Enhancing financial education
Researching the consumer experience of using financial products
Monitoring financial markets for new risks to consumers

Last updated: December 3, 2024

$21 billion+: Amount of monetary compensation, principal reductions, canceled debts, and other consumer relief resulting from CFPB enforcement ($19 billion) and supervisory ($1.7 billion) work.
205 million+: Estimated number of consumers or consumer accounts eligible to receive relief from the CFPB’s enforcement and supervisory work.
$5 billion+: Civil money penalties imposed by the CFPB on companies and individuals that violate the law. Civil money penalties are deposited into the CFPB’s victims relief fund (also known as the civil penalty fund), which provides compensation to consumers who have been harmed by violations of federal consumer financial protection law.
$6.1 billion: Estimated amount consumers will save every year due to recent changes in banks’ overdraft and non-sufficient funds (NSF) fee policies. The CFPB’s most recent analysis found that the decision of most large banks to eliminate NSF fees will save consumers nearly $2 billion annually.
$363 million: Monetary relief resulting from 39 public enforcement actions that involved harm to servicemembers and veterans, including six enforcement actions for violations of the Military Lending Act.
22.8 million: The estimated number of people expected to have had at least one medical collection removed from their credit reports after the three nationwide consumer reporting companies announced the removal of medical collections under $500 from consumer credit reports in April 2023. In March 2022, the CFPB released a report drawing attention to the complicated and burdensome nature of the medical billing system in the United States.
6.8 million+: Consumer complaints sent to companies for response,¹ including 4.6 million+ complaints about credit reporting, 83,000+ complaints about medical debt collection, and 96,000+ complaints about student loans.
63 million+: Approximate number of users who have accessed answers to hundreds of common financial questions via the CFPB’s “Ask CFPB” database.

report https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R48295/2

Who watched over the CFPB?

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) conducts annual audits of the CFPB’s financial statements to help ensure accuracy and internal control of financial reporting.

Separately in 2014 and 2020, Congress has requested audits by the Office of the Inspector
General for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (Federal Reserve OIG) regarding different aspects of the CFPB’s budget

The permanent CFPB director also requires Senate confirmation, meaning Senators can assess a
director’s alignment to their own priorities in terms of the budget and other policies during the
confirmation process. As a part of its semiannual report to Congress, the CFPB generally includes
a justification for and information on its budget requests.

Videos:

60 Minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zap1ja3MTEg

Wall St. Journal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNhFuNfwtTk

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