FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today joined a coalition of 23 attorneys general in urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to scale back its plans that would severely reduce staffing, undermine the agency’s statutory obligation to supervise financial institutions, weaken enforcement, and result in less relief and protection for consumers.
Attorney General Brown and the coalition’s letter opposing the CFPB’s proposed strategic plan explains how it is essential that the CFPB – as the nation’s only federal agency charged with financial consumer protection as its exclusive mission – maintain a robust supervision program to protect consumers nationwide and the financial marketplace.
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, Congress created the CFPB recognizing the need for an effective single financial regulator specifically dedicated to protecting consumers from harm. Since its creation, consumers have received over $21 billion in consumer relief as a result of the CFPB’s enforcement and supervision work.
Since taking office, however, the Trump administration has unsuccessfully attempted to eliminate nearly all CFPB staff. Currently, the CFPB is attempting to reduce a team of 72 supervision staff in the Office of Supervision Policy and Operations to one person, dramatically impacting the agency’s ability to supervise covered entities. Under the proposed strategic plan, such staggering workforce reductions would continue.
Attorney General Brown and the coalition raise concerns that the CFPB will effectively abdicate several critical statutorily mandated roles entirely, leaving consumers vulnerable to greater harm at a time when 40% of U.S. adults have experienced some sort of financial fraud or scam in the past 12 months. Over the past year, the CFPB has abandoned billions of dollars in harm to consumers it previously attempted to recoup on their behalf.
Attorney General Brown and the coalition also highlight how the CFPB’s role has significant benefits for financial institutions by promoting fair competition, educating industries about compliance, and providing confidential resolutions of legal violations.
In their letter, Attorney General Brown and the coalition describe how:
· The strategic plan’s proposal to “realign the organization” and “eliminate non-essential roles” will result in a dramatic reduction of the staff needed to perform the agency’s statutory obligation;
· The plan undermines the CFPB’s statutory requirement to supervise financial institutions;
· The plan’s goal of minimizing “duplicative enforcement” and introducing a deregulatory agenda will place more burden on states to enforce consumer protection laws by abandoning the long-standing state and CFPB partnership; and
· The CFPB’s 2025 actions, along with several of the plan’s stated goals, have resulted and will continue to result in less relief for consumers, not more.
Joining Attorney General Brown in sending the letter are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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