WASHINGTON. D.C. – President Donald Trump today terminated Rohit Chopra as director of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency he has led since Sept. 30, 2021. Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, released the following statement:
“With Trump’s payback to his billionaire Wall Street supporters, the nation now loses the vital, energetic, compassionate, and intelligent services of a great American. One of the most effective consumer champions in government in American history, Rohit Chopra worked tirelessly to protect vulnerable citizens from financial predators. The CFPB under Chopra eliminated many junk fees, capped credit card late charges, reformed reporting of medical debt, sued giant corporations, and elevated the total relief to consumers beyond $21 billion.
“An administration that retreats from the many advances the agency made while under his leadership will betray working Americans. That Trump’s oligarchs want this agency ‘deleted’ attests powerfully to Chopra’s effectiveness and the need for the CFPB – and Trump’s firing of Chopra is as clear a sign as there could be of whose side Trump is on.
“In just the last week alone, the CFPB took enforcement actions against a major credit rating corporation for mishandling consumer disputes, a mortgage lender for racial discrimination, an auto finance company for mishandling credit reports, a peer-to-peer payment app for fraud, debt collectors improperly seeking to collect student debt, a banking company for cheating consumers of interest payments, proposed a rule against unfair contract terms that require consumers to give away their rights, and issued a major study on problems with buy-now-pay-later schemes.
“The intensity of consumer protection at the agency with Chopra at the helm has been unmatched, and the American people deserve this level of focus as they wage David and Goliath battles against corporate America.”
