The National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) is warning that the Trump Administration’s actions to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will devastate working families, honest businesses, and the economy.

“Millionaires and billionaires are celebrating the attack on the CFPB because fewer consumer protections mean more profits for them.

• The wealthy and big corporations are thrilled to see the CFPB under attack—less oversight means they can continue their questionable practices unchecked.
• While working families face more financial risks, the richest Americans are cheering as the CFPB is stripped of its power.
• The dismantling of the CFPB is a gift to the ultra-wealthy, who benefit when consumer protections disappear.

Key concerns:

• The CFPB has been ordered to stop most operations and may receive no funding.
• Unapproved government employees have accessed sensitive consumer data.
• The CFPB has helped recover $21 billion for people affected by unfair financial practices.
  • Here are a few of their successes:
    • Payday loans
    • Illegal Debt Collection
    • Mortgage Servicers
    • Student Loans
    • Wells Fargo and Chase Illegal Mortgage Kickbacks
• Important lawsuits against banks, fraud prevention efforts, and consumer protections are now at risk.

The NCLC stresses that shutting down the CFPB leaves people vulnerable to scams, data misuse, and financial abuse.

Resources: Unlawful Shut Down of Consumer Agency Endangers Working Families, Honest Businesses and the Economy

Fast Facts: CFPB by the Numbers

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 were sent to companies for response, 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.
• 35: Number of Supervisory Highlights issued. These reports include key examination findings, communicate operational changes to the CFPB’s supervision program, and provide a resource for information on our recent guidance documents.
• 8: Number of languages that CFPB provides translated consumer-facing materials in, including Arabic, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese. Consumers can also submit a complaint on the phone in more than 180 languages.

Other articles:

Chopra Firing Brings Four Years of Pro-Consumer CFPB to a Rapid Close

Unintended Consequences of Standing Down the CFPB

Key Consumer Protection Accomplishments, from the Joint Economic Committee, US Congress