CFPB issues response to Bilt's transition troubles

• Key insight: The CFPB announced "collaborative" discussions with a fintech hit with customer complaints earlier this year when it switched bank partners.
• What's at stake: The statement comes as the Trump administration attempts to cut staff at the agency and has dropped previous enforcement actions.
• Expert quote: Senator Elizabeth Warren said that "Bilt has yet to provide a reasonable explanation for why its transition between bank partners caused such turmoil for its customers."

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) elected to not pursue a public enforcement action against the card issuing fintech Bilt after a switch between bank partners caused customers to miss rent payments.
A statement released by the agency on Tuesday stated that officials met with Bilt, a credit card fintech specializing in rent rewards, for discussions regarding Bilt's transition between bank partners in February of this year. 

The switch, instigated by an early end to Bilt's contract with its former partner bank Wells Fargo, caused a sharp increase in customer complaints to the CFPB and other consumer protection groups over missed rent payments and poor customer service.

"The CFPB has also discussed with Bilt the steps it has taken to guarantee that all transition-related technical issues have been resolved, and Bilt's documentation submitted to the CFPB appears to show that it has completed the process and its systems are back on track," the statement said.

The agency will continue monitoring Bilt's efforts and share additional updates once it is satisfied that full redress has been reached, according to the statement.

The announcement comes shortly after the CFPB, led by acting director Russell Vought, enacted a return-to-office plan for employees that is expected to reduce headcount after multiple prior attempts to cut staff and shutter the agency.

The CFPB has also dropped or dismissed various enforcement actions and lawsuits initiated during the Biden administration. The published statement drew comparisons in its chosen approach to the Bilt matter to the agency's previous director, Rohit Chopra.

"Instead of initiating a protracted investigation followed by a public enforcement action, which could be litigated for years before consumers get any redress, as the Biden CFPB would have done under the former director Chopra, this leadership engaged with Bilt directly and collaboratively," the statement read. "This meant that within weeks of the meeting, additional consumers were already receiving redress."

According to the agency statement, Bilt is in the process of reviewing requests from affected customers and will reimburse fees for about 500 customers by Thursday.

Bilt declined to comment on the CFPB statement.

Last week Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote an open letter to Bilt through the Senate Banking Committee questioning the card issuer's handling of its bank partner switch in February.

"Bilt users have reportedly made rent or mortgage payments that never reached their landlord or lender, were rejected or returned, or only were delivered after a significant delay," Warren wrote. "Others have been unable to make payments on outstanding balances still held at Wells Fargo or had their Wells Fargo balances transferred to the new cards without their authorization."

Warren cited a Forbes article that reported a 1300% increase in customer complaints to the CFPB in February, the month Bilt deactivated its Wells Fargo-issued cards.

"Bilt has yet to provide a reasonable explanation for why its transition between bank partners caused such turmoil for its customers," she continued. 

Warren also questioned the fintech's new "Bilt Card 2.0," launched in February as a product overhaul and a replacement to the Wells Fargo cards, and its compliance with the 2009 Credit CARD Act. The act requires card issuers to provide users with a statement at least 21 days before payment is due in order to charge late fees.

"Bilt 2.0 immediately debits a customer's external account for rent or mortgage payments before a statement is issued and [the rent payments] are not charged against customers' credit limits, but are still listed alongside all of a customer's other transactions in Bilt's app," she said. "Bilt appears to be treating its cards as debit cards for a subset of purchases and credit cards for others, raising questions about how Bilt's processes are designed to be compliant with all the requirements of the Credit CARD Act."

Additionally, Warren raised concerns that Bilt's alleged funds mismanagement could be exacerbated by its connection to Evolve Bank and Trust, a fintech partner bank whose partnership with the now-bankrupt Synapse led to millions of dollars of lost customer funds.

Bilt initially launched its card product in 2021 with Evolve Bank and Trust as its partner bank. Wells Fargo then took over Bilt's card accounts in 2022 as part of the bank's strategy to expand its credit card business. Bilt has been steadily winding down its relationship with Evolve since then, according to a company representative.

"Bilt's alleged loss of and delay in delivering customer funds is even more concerning given Bilt's recent partnership with Evolve Bank and Trust," she wrote. "Bilt appears to have re-joined forces with Evolve as part of its Bilt 2.0 transition."

The letter cited Bilt's terms and conditions as of April 21, 2026, which mentioned Evolve as a partner for its payment accounts. Bilt's official terms and conditions, which were updated on Wednesday, no longer mention Evolve Bank in any capacity. "Payment Account Bank" is defined in Bilt's terms, as of time of publication, as "Column N.A., Member FDIC; and any other bank that holds payment accounts."

According to a company representative, there are no new agreements between Bilt and Evolve. All Bilt's new card products and customer housing accounts are now issued by Column Bank, with Cardless as its card servicer.

Bilt's relationship with Evolve did expose the card issuer to a data breach at the bank in 2024. Bilt Rewards customers reported at the time that they received notifications from the credit card company that the incident may have compromised some personal data Evolve had on record.

"As a fintech firm Evolve partnered with numerous other companies, including Affirm, Bilt, Shopify, Mercury, Plaid, and Stripe," a data breach notice from legal firm Schubert Jonckheer & Kolbe LLP stated at the time. "If you did business with any of these companies, your private information may have been posted on the Dark Web as part of the Evolve breach."

In response to the Senate Banking Committee letter, Bilt issued a statement last week that said the company's card transition in February "attracted unexpectedly high demand, and some of our members experienced gaps in service that are simply unacceptable to us."

"All outstanding issues relating to the card transition in February have been addressed and resolved," the statement continued.

A February analyst note from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said that Bilt's card model is unique in the credit card industry for allowing users to earn rewards points on rent payments without incurring transaction fees from landlords or property management companies. "Many consumers use the card for just this use case and therefore use other products for other purchases," the note said.

The Wall Street Journal reported in 2024 that Wells Fargo was losing upwards of $10 million a month through Bilt reward payouts. Its contract with the card issuer was originally set to expire in 2029.

"Bilt has had a challenging start as the partnership was not economically viable, leading Wells Fargo to part ways with the fintech," the KBW analyst note said.