For Immediate Release: March 5, 2025
Contacts: Carter Dougherty, Americans for Financial Reform, carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org; Matthew Kravitz, Center for Responsible Lending, matthew.kravitz@responsiblelending.org
New Poll Shows Strong, Bipartisan Support for CFPB and Key Safeguards
Rules on overdraft fees, medical debt, small business loans viewed favorably
WASHINGTON, DC – With the U.S. House Financial Services Committee voting today to prevent a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule from lowering the price of overdraft fees at megabanks and with the Senate Banking Committee scheduled to vote tomorrow on a nominee for CFPB director, a new poll shows Americans strongly support the CFPB’s mission as well as its rules lowering overdraft fees, tracking small business lending inequalities, and prohibiting medical debt from appearing on credit reports.
The survey was overseen by a bipartisan polling team from Lake Research Partners and Chesapeake Beach Consulting and was commissioned by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) and Americans for Financial Reform (AFR).
Read the polling memo and toplines with full results.
“The Administration’s shutdown of the Consumer Bureau is wildly out of step with Americans, across the political spectrum, who want this consumer watchdog agency doing its job,” said Mike Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending. “Consumer Bureau rules to lower the cost of overdraft fees, lessen the burden of medical debt, and track gaps in small business lending are popular and Congress should let these rules stand.”
“The public likes the CFPB for the same reason Wall Street, Big Banks, Big Tech, predatory lenders and abusive debt collectors are fighting it: because the agency makes financial companies treat people more fairly, and puts money back in household budgets by stopping junk fees and debt traps and financial tricks,” said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. “The CFPB has been an excellent example of government working well for people across the country.”
“People are experiencing heightened financial insecurity, so it makes sense that people support Consumer Bureau rules to stop price-gouging big bank overdraft fees, to prevent an illness from ruining a person’s credit score, and to shed light on barriers small business owners face in getting a loan,” said Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners.
“Year after year, Republican voters who support the Consumer Bureau and its rules outnumber – often, far outnumber – Republican voters who oppose the agency and its rules. Combined with additional robust support among independent and Democratic voters, who are key to winning elections, Republican politicians who undermine the Consumer Bureau are swimming against the tide of public opinion,” said Bob Carpenter, president of Chesapeake Beach Consulting.
Among other findings, the poll showed:
- Over eight in ten Americans (82%) believe it is important to regulate financial services to ensure they are fair for consumers.
- After hearing a short description of the Consumer Bureau and its mission, two thirds of Americans (67%) favor the CFPB, including solid majorities across party lines; favorability for the CFPB has been consistently very high over the past decade.
- Seven in ten Americans (70%) support a rule limiting the dollar amount banks can charge in overdraft fees to $5 or only what the overdraft costs them with no additional profit.
- Most Americans (53%) support a CFPB rule requiring banks to report information on their small business lending to track inequalities in access to credit for rural, women, Black, Latino, and Asian small business owners.
- Two thirds of Americans (66%) support keeping a CFPB rule to stop medical debts from being included on credit reports.
Read the polling memo and toplines with full results here.
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