How consumers can protect their finances with the CFPB in limbo
As the Trump administration looks to neuter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, advocates urge borrowers to step up their own defenses around their money.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s fate hangs in the balance, and with it the extent of the government’s oversight of Americans’ savings and $18 trillion in household debt.
Consumer advocates are already sounding alarms.
“This climate is going to be ripe for an uptake in fraudulent activities,” said Lara Benson, an attorney at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, a fair-lending advocacy group.
The Trump administration has moved quickly to shut down work at the consumer protection bureau. The nearly 14-year-old arm of the Federal Reserve, created in response to the 2008-09 financial crisis, has long been targeted by conservatives and the banking industry that accuse it of being unfair, excessive and even unconstitutional.
Courts have so far halted White House efforts to slash the CFPB’s workforce to the bone, with a judge last week asking a Justice Department lawyer whether “making sure consumers are protected from abusive practices” is “inconsistent with policy priorities of this administration.”
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