FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 20, 2022

CONTACT
William Pierre-Louis, Jr.
william@ourfinancialsecurity.org
(347) 499-7874

5th Circuit Court of Appeal’s Decision on CFPB Funding is an Outrageous Undermining of Consumers’ Rights

On Wednesday, October 19, 2022, a three-judge panel in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the payday lenders trade association in ruling that the CFPB’s funding structure is unconstitutional because it does not go through Congressional appropriations. This line of attack toward the CFPB – via its funding – has nothing to do with actually caring about the constitution and everything to do with the big banks and predatory lenders trying to escape the oversight and enforcement actions of an agency focusing on protecting and defending consumers. Otherwise, there would be similar challenges against other agencies that are funded the same way. This decision is extreme, outrageous, and wrong.

“Ever since the CFPB’s creation more than a decade ago, predatory lenders, Wall Street, and big banks have been singularly focused on using whatever tactic they can to undermine and limit its authority,” said Elyse Hicks, consumer policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund.  “That’s because the Bureau has done exactly what Congress set it up to do – enforce the law and write rules and regulations against abusive practices, all while putting billions back in consumer’s pockets. Abusive financial companies don’t like it because they want to keep profiting from treating people unfairly; this court went to absurd lengths to take their side.”

This ruling comes on the heels of the Chamber of Commerce and banking trade associations’ recent lawsuit against the CFPB, where they sued to overturn the CFPB’s decision to include discrimination as an unfair practice, echoing similar outrageous arguments about CFPB’s structure and authority. 

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