The Trump administration fired CFPB Director Rohit Chopra on Feb. 1 in a move that had been expected with new leadership in the White House.

President Donald Trump’s administration appointed Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent as acting director of the CFPB, according to a CFPB release today.

The leadership change does not come as a shock, Jim McCarthy, founder and chairman of consulting agency McCarthy Hatch and a founding member of the CFPB, told Bank Automation News. “Since the Supreme Court decided that the director can be terminated, it is expected to have a director shift at the change of administration.” 

As leadership changes, regulation, too, is likely to shift as well, McCarthy said. “I expect the junk fee regulation to be repealed as well as the overdraft fee proposal. Any actions taken by Chopra since August will be under consideration for overturning.  The CFPB will focus on examination and supervision and less on enforcement.” 

Rulemaking paused 

Bessent immediately paused rulemaking, communications, litigation and other activities at the CFPB, according to Bloomberg reports.  

Any CFPB litigation that has not reached a settlement or received a final judgement could be subject to review under new leadership, Jason Bichsel, member of law firm McGlinchey, told BAN’s sister publication Auto Finance News.   

“The new administration is going to review anything that was pending, and the likelihood is that some of the pending rulemaking or cases may be abandoned or dismissed,” he said. This includes cases the CFPB has brought against entities and those that have been brought against the bureau to halt enforcement of its rules, he noted. 

It is unclear if the courts will uphold the pause on proceedings for impacted cases, Bichsel said. 

“If we think back to the first Trump administration and the way the bureau handled its business, this decision to back off on regulation by enforcement is the likely path they’re going to head down,” he said. 

“That would mean reversing informal guidance and statements that weren’t made consistent with formal rulemaking procedures over the last several years,” Bischsel said. “Any rules pending an effective date will be reviewed to determine whether [CFPB leadership] will allow them to become final or pull them back.” 

Chopra’s ‘last ditch’ efforts 

Since election night in November, the CFPB has filed a flurry of lawsuits before former President Joe Biden’s departure, a JPMorgan spokesperson previously told BAN. 

“As a last ditch effort in pursuit of their political agenda, the CFPB is now overreaching its authority by making banks accountable for criminals,” the JPMorgan spokesperson said when it was sued by the CFPB in December alongside Early Warning Services, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. 

In addition, the CFPB has issued these fines in January: 

• On Jan. 30, the bureau fined electronic money services provider Wise $2.025 million for allegedly misleading U.S. clients about fees; 

• On Jan. 16, peer-to-peer payments app Cash App was ordered to pay $175 million in refunds and fines due to fraud detection failures; and 
• On Jan. 14, Capital One was sued for allegedly keeping its customers in the dark about digital product offerings. 

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