소비자 보호 기관 폐쇄 추진…
SEATTLE —The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is a federal agency that, up until a few weeks ago, policed some of the largest and most powerful financial and tech companies in America. It oversaw companies offering credit cards, mortgages, student loans, and other financial services, such as peer-to-peer (P2P) payment apps, payday loans, and buy now, pay later platforms.
Congress created the CFPB in the wake of the financial system meltdown in 2008, which caused more than 8 million people to lose their jobs, almost four million to lose their homes, and the federal bailout of big banks. The CFPB was charged with preventing financial fraud and deceptive lending practices.
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In February, the Trump administration instructed CFPB employees to stop working. The building was locked, employees were sent home, and many were told they were fired. A federal judge has prohibited mass firings at the agency until she can issue a final ruling on a lawsuit filed by employees.
The president appointed Russel Vought, who runs the Office of Management and Budget, as CFPB acting director. Vought also ordered a stop to most work and stated he would not request funding for the agency. Note: The CFPB is funded by the Federal Reserve, not taxpayers; Congress designed it that way to remove political influence.
“We virtually shut down the out-of-control CFPB, escorting radical left bureaucrats out of the building and locking the doors behind them,” Trump said.
Under Vought’s leadership, the CFPB has stopped all enforcement and supervision. The rulemaking process has been terminated. And rules already on the books are unlikely to be enforced. These include two new rules that require credit bureaus to remove all medical debt from credit reports (something that affected 15 million people) and limit overdraft fees for large banks to $5 (which would save bank customers an estimated $5 billion a year).
The CFPB is not pursuing new lawsuits nor supporting ones it already filed, leading to their dismissal (more on that below). Consumer complaints are not being addressed. And what happens to the restitution money already collected that was supposed to be returned to consumers harmed by illegal practices? No one knows.
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Former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, who was fired by the president on Feb. 1, told 60 Minutes the muzzling of his agency is welcome news to those it regulated. “They would want a situation where the agency is a lapdog, rather than a watchdog,” he said.
소비자 보호 기관 폐쇄 추진
The CFPB was created despite the objections of nearly all Republican members of Congress and business leaders. Their assault on the consumer agency never stopped. They claimed the CFPB was anti-business, that it was following a political agenda, and that its rules (enacted after years of hearings and comment review) were “arbitrary and capricious.”
In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a claim by payday lenders that the CFPB’s formation was unconstitutional. The payday-lending companies were unhappy with a CFPB rule that limited their ability to withdraw funds directly from borrowers’ bank accounts.
Getting Restitution for Victims
Since its inception in 2010, the CFPB has returned nearly $20 billion to nearly 200 million consumers harmed by big banks, credit bureaus, debt collectors, and predatory lenders. This relief included monetary compensation, principal reductions, and canceled debts. The bureau also levied $5 billion in civil monetary penalties.
In recent years, the CFPB has ordered:
Wells Fargo to pay $3.7 billion for “widespread mismanagement” of auto loans, mortgages, and deposit accounts that affected more than 16 million accounts and resulted in “wrongfully foreclosed homes and illegally repossessed vehicles.”
Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union in the U.S., to pay back more than $95 million for charging “illegal overdraft fees” to active duty service members and veterans for ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases when their accounts had sufficient funds at the time of the transaction.
Navient, a former student loan servicer, to pay $120 million for wide-ranging student loan failures. Navient was also banned from the student loan market.
Equifax, one of the big three credit bureaus, to pay $15 million for failing to conduct “adequate investigations” when consumers disputed information in their credit reports. Equifax was ordered to bring its dispute resolution process into compliance with federal laws.
CFPB Forced to Halt Consumer Protection Work Already in Progress
소비자 보호 기관 폐쇄 추진
Vought has ordered the CFPB to abandon enforcement cases started during the Biden administration against corporations that were suspected of causing significant financial harm to consumers. So far, the CFPB has filed motions to dismiss seven cases and to never pursue them again….
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