A flurry of announcements and proposals from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the weeks leading up to — and after — November’s election begs the question: With the agency under fire from the majority party — as Republicans have control of the presidency and Congress — what happens next?
Yes, the CFPB’s very structure was upheld by the Supreme Court after a long and winding legal challenge to its constitutionality.
But now, in the wake of the election, and as crystallized in Elon Musk’s call to “delete” the CFPB, there’s at least the chance for upheaval for the regulatory agency beginning in January.
CFPB Director Rohit Chopra may resign or be fired, given that he serves at the will of the president (as would any subsequent director). A widespread change in leadership (including the staff that serves the director) would change the focus of the agency overall, where conventional wisdom holds that President-elect Donald Trump will pursue a policy of regulatory rollbacks.
Against that backdrop, here’s where some key rulemaking stands, coming into a year where the CFPB’s actions will invite laser-focused scrutiny and perhaps some dismantling (or at least attempts) of those same actions.
Perhaps most sweeping of all the CFPB’s actions was the October announcement of a final open banking rule, which variously is referred to as Section 1033 or the “open banking rule.”
The rule, which implements Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Act, aims to give consumers greater control over their financial data and the ability to share it securely with third-party service providers.
Under the new rule, banks, credit unions and other financial institutions will be required to make consumers’ financial data available upon request to both consumers and authorized third parties. The info itself dials right down to the account level, spanning deposit accounts, transactions and credit card use.
After the rule was announced, banks and banking trade associations filed a suit contending that the rule does not mandate oversight of the very same third parties that would be using the consumer-level data.
Last week, a new CFPB rule, set to take effect Oct. 1, 2025, applies to banks and credit unions with assets exceeding $10 billion.
Under the new regulations, affected institutions must choose one of three options for their overdraft programs: cap overdraft fees at $5; set fees to cover only costs and losses; or comply with standard lending laws, including interest rate disclosures. The changes could save consumers up to $5 billion annually, or approximately $225 per household that incurs overdraft fees.
Banking associations filed a suit alleging that overdraft services would be curtailed and the agency was overstepping its regulatory boundaries.
Elsewhere, a proposed $8 cap on credit card late fees was prevented from taking effect by a court-ordered injunction.
Headed into the summer, the CFPB issued a rule that buy now, pay later customers will have a range of federal protections that already apply to credit card holders.
An October suit by a FinTech trade association fired back that BNPL firms will find it impossible to comply and added that periodic statement issuance — as applies to credit cards — is “infeasible for BNPL products” and that there would be costly and time-consuming infrastructure and business process changes.
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