Trump fires chief of the federal consumer watchdog agency

The Trump administration has fired Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The move was widely expected as President Trump is likely to name a new director for the agency, which is a frequent target of Republican attacks.

Chopra was tapped by former President Joe Biden to lead the bureau in 2021. The position has a five-year term, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the president can fire the director at will.

In a resignation letter posted on X, Chopra said watchdog agencies such as the CFPB work to enforce laws to “check the enormous influence that powerful firms have over our daily lives.”

During his term, Chopra took on a number of financial companies, including big banks.

In December, the agency sued the operator of Zelle, as well as the nation’s top banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, “for failing to protect consumers from widespread fraud.”

The CFPB is an independent bureau within the Federal Reserve system, and it’s funded outside of the congressional appropriations process, with its funding coming from the Fed.

The CFPB was created in 2010 by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. That legislation was passed following the 2008 financial crisis, and was intended to prevent another crisis.

On the news of his ouster on Saturday, consumer groups praised Chopra’s leadership of the agency.

Under Chopra, “the CFPB has fought against junk fees, repeat offenders, big tech evasions, and corporate deception. It has championed competition, transparency, accountability, and consumer financial health,” Adam Rust, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America, said in a statement.

Banks appear to be accepting that the CFPB is here to stay, but they have changes they want to see.

“The incoming Administration has a unique and important opportunity to institute meaningful reforms to the CFPB, in both the immediate and long-term, that can help transform the agency into the credible and durable regulator Americans deserve,” the Consumer Bankers Association wrote in a white paper in January.

The association called for some immediate changes, including rescinding CFPB’s rules on overdrafts and credit card late fees.

At a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee in December, ranking member Tim Scott, R-S.C., called for Chopra to resign on Trump’s first day in office, and expressed disgust that the CFPB had continued to issue rules and reports in the waning weeks of the Biden administration.

Scott also said he was opposed to the financial structure of the CFPB. “It is unacceptable to have an agency with a budget of almost a billion dollars outside of the appropriations process and we must find a way to address this issue,” he said in a prepared statement.