Key Points
- The Trump administration is taking steps to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
- The CFPB was created after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from predatory lending.
- The agency has returned $21 billion to consumers since it was founded in 2010. Conservatives argue the CFPB is redundant and has too much power.
- The administration is fighting to fire 90% of the agency’s staff and says it will run out of funds in 2026.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal watchdog agency that has helped millions of Americans fight back against financial predators, is now facing extinction. The Trump administration is actively working to shut it down, claiming the agency is a political weapon for Democrats and a burden on free enterprise. For many people, this would mean losing a critical lifeline when dealing with credit report errors, predatory lenders, and debt collectors.
Take Bianca Jones, a special education teacher from Tennessee. When she tried to buy a house, she found that her student loan debt had been double-counted on her credit report, making it look like she owed a quarter of a million dollars. She tried to fix the error with the credit agency, Experian, but got nowhere.
Frustrated, she filed a complaint with the CFPB. That complaint created a paper trail that helped her win a lawsuit, correct her record, and finally buy her dream home. “If I didn’t have this agency to go to,” she said, “I don’t think I’d be in the house right now.”
The CFPB was created in 2010 after the financial crisis to be the one federal agency focused solely on protecting consumers. Since then, it has returned over $21 billion to people who financial companies cheated.
However, conservatives have long argued that the agency has too much power and is redundant. Now, the Trump administration is trying to fire 90% of its workers and says the agency will run out of money in early 2026.
This move has consumer advocates and even some former regulators worried. They argue that without the CFPB, there will be “no cop on the beat” to protect regular people from unfair practices. While the administration claims other agencies can handle the job, critics say those agencies lack the resources and focus of the CFPB.
For people like Bianca Jones, losing this watchdog means they might have nowhere to turn when life and big corporations get in the way of their financial goals.
