In a party-line 50-48 vote, the US Senate confirmed Rohit Chopra as the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today.
Jesse Van Tol, President and CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, made the following statement:
“Rohit Chopra’s prior experience as an Associate Director and Student Loan Ombudsman at the CFPB and most recently as a Federal Trade Commissioner demonstrates his strong commitment to the CFPB’s core mission to protect American consumers from unfair, abusive or deceptive financial practices and products. The CFPB also enforces the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and the robust enforcement of this anti-discrimination law is crucial to closing the racial wealth gap and stopping redlining.
“The CFPB is the only agency explicitly authorized to protect consumers when they use financial services. After unrestrained risk-taking by many financial institutions led to the financial crisis of 2008, Congress created the CFPB to restore fairness to the economy.
“During the Trump-era, enforcement actions fell by 80% from their peak under the tenure of former Director Richard Cordray, the Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity was weakened, and innovation was permitted to take priority over consumer protection. Chopra can restore the CFPB to its intended mission.
“American families and small businesses still face unprecedented challenges and hardships from the pandemic. Under Chopra’s leadership the CFPB can get back to work strengthening the oversight of financial institutions and restore protections that were diminished or ignored under Trump.”
