FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 09, 2026
CONTACT: Jarice Thompson, jarice@ourfinancialsecurity.org
One Year of the CFPB Under Siege
WASHINGTON, D.C. – One year ago today, the Trump administration took over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and began a quest to dismantle the agency responsible for protecting the rights of consumers and holding big banks and Wall Street accountable for taking advantage of everyday people. Under the direction of acting director Russell Vought, the CFPB has dropped countless enforcement actions, suspended workers, and reduced oversight all while prioritizing the needs of financial firms.
The CFPB has for a long time been a target for elimination, surviving a Supreme Court case and numerous attempts at slashed funding. Despite these attacks, the CFPB has returned over 20 billion in savings back to over 200 million working people harmed by financial institutions.
“Instead of putting the hardworking people and families who rely on the CFPB to protect them from rip-offs, fraud, and discrimination first, the Trump administration’s CFPB would rather green light giveaways to big banks, big tech, and Wall Street,” said Tom Feltner, associate director of consumer policy at Americans for Financial Reform. “It’s time for the CFPB to get back to their real business of protecting everyday people from predatory financial practices.”
Another key part of the Trump administration’s war on the CFPB has been restricting the enforcement actions of the agency by not only dropping cases against predatory mortgage lenders, payment apps, and financial firms but even going so far as seeking to return the settlements of already decided cases. These unprecedented moves sabotage one of the agency’s core missions and leaves some of the most vulnerable people including seniors, families, and servicemembers to defend themselves from the whims of financial firms.
Along with proactively neglecting the critical enforcement duties of the CFPB, Vought has sought to unlawfully shutdown this congressionally mandated government agency. These efforts include attempting to allow the agency’s dedicated funding from the Federal Reserve to lapse, mass firings designed to halt key functions of the agency, and forbidding remaining staff from doing their work. Courts have blocked most of these efforts to date. The Vought-led CFPB has appealed those decisions and the case will be further reviewed later this month.
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