From the ashes of the financial crisis rose the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. When the watchdog launched in 2011, greedy Wall Street banks, financial scammers, and predatory lenders were finally held accountable. Schemes to deceive, scam, and discriminate against consumers were rooted out. Billions of dollars were successfully recovered on behalf of cheated consumers including minorities, military families, and student borrowers. And then Donald Trump came to town.
The CFPB is no longer a reliable champion for consumers under President Trump. Enforcement and supervision against bad financial industry behavior has plummeted. Rules are being rigged against consumers. Industry demands are being granted, especially for top Trump donors.
The agency is now run by Kathy Kraninger who has made her agenda clear: to weaken the CFPB from within. And she’s had help from top CFPB aides who were hand-picked from corporate boardrooms and the offices of right-wing ideologues in Congress. CFPB Watch was created by Allied Progress to keep the public informed of the administration’s efforts to sell out consumers to the highest bidder, and the key players behind it all.
