Senate Banking Republicans Describe CFPB as "Lawless"

Twelve Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee urged CFPB Director Rohit Chopra to abandon the agency's "radical and highly-politicized agenda" and expressed concern that the organization is "lawless and unaccountable."

In a letter, the Senators, including Ranking member Pat Toomey (R-PA), said that Mr. Chopra is using "inappropriate tactics to harm financial institutions' reputations and customer relationships in order to advance [his] liberal policy preferences." The Senators asserted that the CFPB abused its authority by using "name-and-shame" tactics and running a "relentless smear campaign" against banks that offered optional overdraft services for a fee, and essentially demanded that the so-called "junk fees" be eliminated and the services be offered without charge. The Senators criticized the CFPB for changing its rules to allow it to publish previously confidential information about the entities it supervises "in an apparent effort to make it easier to threaten firms with reputational harm."

The Senators warned that if not stopped, "[t]he CFPB's actions, which have been uncontrolled and unwarranted, will ultimately lead to costlier credit, or no credit at all, for millions of Americans." The Senators encouraged Mr. Chopra to "reverse course and stop using inappropriate tactics to harm financial institutions' reputations and customer relationships in order to advance your liberal policy preferences."