Employees expect CFPB to terminate all enforcement actions

• Key Insight: As the CFPB abandons oversight requirements for Apple and U.S. Bank, experts both inside and outside the bureau see a wider pattern.
• Supporting Data: The CFPB has terminated dozens of enforcement actions and introduced only two new ones since President Trump returned to office.
• Expert Quote: "It's striking, the numbers," said Amanda Fischer, COO of Better Markets. "They're not bringing anything new."

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau scraps its consent orders in case after case, many employees at the agency now expect it to drop all pending enforcement actions.

People currently working at the embattled regulator told American Banker that the CFPB is hurrying to close existing enforcement actions because the bureau is expected to run out of money soon and is looking to lay off or furlough staff. The CFPB employees spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

Last week, the CFPB terminated Biden-era consent orders against U.S. Bank and Apple. In both cases, the decisions ended oversight and compliance requirements that had been set to continue for several more years — four years for Apple, three years for U.S. Bank.

"I think it's part of a wider trend that the bureau has initiated since the inauguration, which is to indiscriminately allow the financial services industry to escape any sort of ongoing bureau oversight," said Amanda Fischer, chief operating officer of the progressive nonprofit Better Markets.

In December 2023, the CFPB ordered U.S. Bank to pay $36 million in connection with prepaid debit cards that were used to distribute unemployment benefits during the COVID era. The bank allegedly froze tens of thousands of unemployed Americans out of receiving their benefits.

And in October 2024, the CFPB fined Apple $25 million over its botched handling of disputed transactions on the Apple Card, the credit card it launched with Goldman Sachs in 2019.

Both U.S Bank and Apple have paid the penalties they owed, the CFPB noted in its termination orders. Neither document offered any reasons for voiding the rest of the punishment, but stated that the agency has the statutory authority to do so.

By the time of this article's publication, the bureau had not responded to American Banker's request for comment.

The two terminations of enforcement actions are part of a much broader pattern. Since the start of President Trump's second term, the CFPB has dismissed or withdrawn dozens of pending enforcement cases, comprising more than half of the docket it inherited from the Joe Biden administration.

In the same time period, the agency has only initiated two enforcement actions. In contrast, the CFPB under the Biden administration launched 13 enforcement actions in the first eight months of 2021.

"It's striking, the numbers," Fischer said. "They're not bringing anything new."

The regulator has recently been grappling with massive budget cuts. In July, Congress passed a Republican-backed spending bill that cut the CFPB's funding almost in half. Earlier this month, the agency warned employees to expect possible layoffs.

"The CFPB must continue to evaluate workforce optimization opportunities to align with congressionally-mandated funding levels since the bureau's transfer cap from the Federal Reserve was revised from 12% to 6.5% per year," read an internal email obtained by American Banker. "This evaluation includes considering a possible reduction in force action."

This was not the first time the bureau faced a threat to its headcount. In April, the Trump administration fired close to 1,500 of the CFPB's workers, or about 90% of its staff, before a federal court ordered that the employees be rehired.

"The fact that they tried to fire everyone overnight with little notice, I think, is a tell that they don't want the bureau to exist anymore," Fisher said. "It's just clear that this is part of an all-out assault."

Neither Apple nor U.S. Bank replied to American Banker's request for comment by the time of publication.