AHEAD OF SPEECH: Trump Abandons CFPB Enforcement Cases, Leaving American Consumers High and Dry
Senator Warren quote: “President Trump is speaking tonight about ‘renewing the American Dream.’ Just hours before his speech, he and Elon Musk killed a lawsuit that could provide relief to cheated Americans. Trump's American Dream means big business gets bigger and Americans get scammed.”
Ahead of his address to Congress tonight, President Trump and Elon Musk are continuing their attack on American consumers by dropping new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) enforcement cases that could return millions to Americans who got scammed. The CFPB’s enforcement and supervisory work has returned more than $21B directly to consumers––including billions from big banks for mismanagement of auto loans, mortgages, and checking accounts.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk have forced the CFPB to drop 8 enforcement cases against big corporations that could provide money back to millions of Americans after being scammed:
- DROPPED: The big banks behind Zelle for $1B in unchecked consumer fraud on the platform.
- DROPPED: Heights Finance for loan-churning practices that harvested hundreds of millions in loan costs and fees.
- DROPPED: Transunion for ignoring a court order and tricking people in recurring payments.
- DROPPED: SoLo Funds for deceiving borrowers and imposing deceptive fees on more than half a million borrowers.
- DROPPED: Capital One for an alleged scheme cheating millions of consumers out of more than $2B in interest rates on savings accounts.
- DROPPED: Rocket Homes accountable for a kickback scheme to steer borrowers to Rocket Mortgage and block competition in a way that drove up the cost of housing.
- DROPPED: Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency for collecting on student loans that borrowers did not owe.
- DROPPED: Suing Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance for setting families up to fail when they borrowed money to buy a manufactured home, knowingly trapping people in risky loans.
There are 30 additional pending enforcement cases frozen by the Trump-Musk attack on the CFPB.
Here are some of the ways the CFPB helps American consumers that are being undermined by the Trump-Musk attack:
- Stopping Scams Before They Start: The CFPB is the cop on the beat reviewing big banks’ activity every day to prevent customers from being scammed. Right now, that work is frozen.
- Ensuring Companies Pay What They Owe Cheated Families: The CFPB has already concluded numerous enforcement actions requiring companies to return money to Americans they cheated, but the agency is not currently monitoring whether these payments are being made.
- Preventing Another Housing Crash: The CFPB is the primary watchdog for the $13T mortgage market. The agency has taken 94 mortgage lending and servicing enforcement actions, resulting in over $5B in relief for more than 16M consumers, including victims of illegal foreclosures.
- Protecting Our Troops: The CFPB has returned $363M to servicemembers and veterans, including ordering Navy Federal Credit Union to refund $80M for charging illegal overdraft fees.
- Curbing Predatory Student Lending: Last year, the CFPB banned Navient from student loan servicing after years of abuse and ordered Navient to deliver financial relief to harmed borrowers.
- Voicing Consumer Complaints: 6.8M consumers have filed complaints with the agency for action, including 4.6M+ about credit reporting and 170K+ about medical debt and student loans.
- Tackling Medical Debt: The CFPB finalized a rule that will remove an estimated $49B in medical bills from 15M Americans’ credit reports, making it easier for Americans to get access to the capital they need. This rule should be effective in mid-March but is held up by the freeze.
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