CFPB Is Suspended & We Are All at Risk

What shutting down the CFPB means for working Americans and the billionaire class

A quick story to start. Before jumping full time into human rights law, my first job out of law school was at a major bank. My team worked to ensure it complied with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) mandates. The bank had just been fined $210 million for unethical collection practices. That led to a job opening via formation of a new legal compliance and litigation team, and thus I was hired. My team was tasked with ensuring that the entire operation—spanning a multi-billion dollar portfolio—was brought into compliance. I think about those days, nearly 15 years ago, as I now watch Trump gutting the CFPB. What does it mean for you, the ordinary American working trying to make a living, and how will it affect your day to day? Let’s Address This.

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Why Was the CFPB ‪Even Formed?

The CFPB exists because of the devastating 2008 financial crisis—a crisis caused by unchecked corporate greed and lack of oversight. The CFPB was designed to prevent the next crisis by holding financial institutions accountable. Now, Trump and his billionaire donors are tearing it apart, removing one of the most significant checks on corporate financial abuse. The CFPB was first and foremost about protecting consumers and ensuring that every law firm and vendor the bank worked with also followed ethical and legal guidelines.

With that mandate, at my bank we built a compliance framework from the ground up, forcing the bank to fundamentally restructure its entire infrastructure with consumer interest at the forefront. It was a grueling, painstaking process—and to be clear—it was not altruism. The bank did not act on its own—it acted because the CFPB forced it to act.

And the result? Within 30 months the bank became the gold standard of compliance, earning praise on the House floor as an example other financial institutions should follow. And other institutions did follow. The CFPB’s oversight didn’t just clean up one bank—it forced an industry-wide shift, ensuring that billions in unethical fees and charges were either returned to consumers or never extracted from them in the first place. Were we perfect? Of course not, but with knowledge that the CFPB was watching, we were that much motivated to ensure future policy didn’t cut corners and harm customers.

What Has The CFPB Done For Us Anyway?

Claims that the CFPB is inefficient are claims founded in myth, not fact. Since the CFPB was formed, it has protected hundreds of millions of Americans by eliminating billions in exploitative bank charges. The numbers speak for themselves:1

$17.5 billion – The amount of money the CFPB has put back in Americans’ pockets in the form of monetary compensation, principal reductions, canceled debts, and other consumer relief resulting from CFPB enforcement and supervision work$4 billion – The amount of money CFPB has imposed in civil money penalties on companies and individuals that violate the law. This money is deposited into the victims relief fund which provides compensation to people who have been harmed by violations of federal consumer financial protection law200 million – The estimated number of consumer accounts eligible to receive financial relief from the CFPB’s enforcement and supervision work$175 million – The amount of monetary relief resulting from 39 public enforcement actions that involved harm to servicemembers and veterans50.1 million – The number of users who have accessed answers to hundreds of common financial questions via the CFPB’s Ask CFPB database4 million – The number of consumer complaints the CFPB has sent to companies for response on behalf of consumers. Our public Consumer Complaint Database has published over 3.8 million of those3,000 – The average number of complaints the CFPB handles each day180 – The number of languages that consumers can use to file a complaint

And meanwhile, banks still made record profits, proving yet again that the CFPB didn’t stifle business, it protected consumers. Yet, even with those reforms in place, consumers still paid more than $5.8 billion in overdraft and NSF fees in 2023 alone. That tells you how much work remains to be done. And now, Trump is working to dismantle the very agency responsible for these protections.

Trump’s War on Consumers: Dismantling the CFPB

Over the weekend, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was effectively dismantled. All of its activities were suspended, its funding was cut, and its headquarters were temporarily closed. Acting director Russell Vought issued an immediate order to shut down all enforcement and oversight, writing in a letter to:

“Cease all supervision and examination activity. Cease all stakeholder engagement. Pause all pending investigations.”

This is a disaster for working people and a massive gift to billion-dollar banks and predatory lenders. Even worse, Vought ordered that the CFPB’s internal systems be opened to staffers from Trump’s newly created fraud scheme, the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE)—a move that has left employees scrambling to protect sensitive consumer data. This is the same DOGE that was revealed to be employing a white supremacist who decries “race mixing,” (who has since been rehired at DOGE) as well as a staffer previously fired for leaking company secrets.2 These are the people Trump is handing our private financial data over to.

Why This Matters: A Return to Outright Fraud?

Let’s go back to the $210 million fine my former employer paid. That fine wasn’t just about punishing the bank. It was about ensuring that every single vendor the bank worked with—debt collectors, law firms, financial servicers—was also held accountable. The excuse of “We did our best, but we can’t control our third-party vendors” was no longer an option. The CFPB removed that loophole, making it clear that outsourcing corruption was still corruption.

With the CFPB now in shambles, that safeguard is gone. Banks and corporations will once again be free to exploit consumers with little fear of consequence—as will their vendors who often provide the direct customer interaction each of us experience daily.

The Fight Back: Unions and Legal Challenges

The good news? Labor Unions are stepping up, as they always do. The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents CFPB employees, has already filed two lawsuits to stop Trump’s destruction of the agency. NBC reports:

One lawsuit seeks to block the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing CFPB employee data. The other demands a judge rule that Vought’s orders to halt CFPB enforcement are illegal.

This is why we need unions. This is why we need regulatory agencies. And this is why we need every American—left, right, and center—to wake up and see what’s happening. If you’re a working-class American—Republican, Democrat, or Independent—this affects you.

• Do you have a bank account? Your fees are about to skyrocket.
• Do you have a mortgage, student loan, or auto loan? Expect fewer protections and more hidden charges.
• Do you use a credit card? Late fees and interest rates will climb without oversight.

This is not a partisan issue. This is class warfare, waged by Trump and his billionaire donors against the working people of this country. It is critical we stand united against this exploitation, because red or blue, we’re all financially screwed if we allow this corruption to ensue.

What You Can Do

✅ Call your elected officials—demand they support legal action against Trump’s attack on the CFPB.
✅ Support consumer advocacy groups—organizations like Public Citizen and the National Consumer Law Center are fighting this battle.
✅ Join a union—because when corporations and billionaires collude to exploit you, collective power is your strongest defense.
✅ Stay informed and spread the word—media isn’t covering this enough. Share this article. Tell your friends and family.
✅ Subscribe to independent media—corporate outlets won’t fight for working people. But I will. Subscribe and support this work.

The bottom line is that this injustice is not normal. This is not okay. This is economic fascism in real time. And we must fight it by standing united for economic justice.

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