FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 17, 2026
CONTACT: Jarice Thompson, jarice@ourfinancialsecurity.org
The CFPB has Helped Prevent Another Financial Crisis, but Trump Administration Says Safeguarding People and The Economy Is Just Too Expensive
The agency has returned over $21 billion directly to consumers who were harmed by financial companies
Washington, D.C.— Today, the Trump administration released a simplistic and misleading new claim that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has cost consumers between $237 and $369 billion in additional costs, increased borrowing expenses, and lost productivity. The cost calculation mostly uses industry-biased and highly-inflated compliance cost estimates without considering the enormous economic benefits of the CFPB to people and financial stability. The report makes no reference to the over $21 billion in money returned to people harmed by bad financial practices, the benefits of CFPB safeguards that prevented widespread financial harm, or the consumer agency’s role in preventing a repeat of the 2007 mortgage and financial crisis.
The CFPB was created in 2010 after banking regulators failed to prevent an explosion in predatory mortgages that devastated the U.S. and global economies, led to millions of foreclosures, eliminated $17 trillion of U.S. household wealth, and cost millions of people their jobs.
“The Trump administration has tried for over a year to shut down the CFPB because it worked tirelessly to protect people from junk fees, scams, and widespread financial harm as well as holding financial firms accountable for ripoffs and unfair practices,” said Tom Feltner, associate director of consumer policy at Americans for Financial Reform. “It is not surprising that this administration is now claiming that people would be better off without the commonsense financial protections that have prevented another financial crisis for the past fifteen years.”
The CFPB is a federal agency dedicated to making the financial markets for products like mortgages, credit cards, and student loans fairer, more transparent, and more affordable. It protects consumers by writing and enforcing rules that ban unfair or deceptive practices, making financial companies follow consumer protection and fair lending laws, and taking legal action against those that do not.
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