The CFPB has dropped four major enforcement lawsuits, signaling a possible broader rollback of regulatory actions under the Trump administration.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has dropped at least four enforcement lawsuits brought by the consumer watchdog agency’s previous leadership, court filings show.
According to filings made on Feb. 27 in multiple federal courts, the CFPB has voluntarily dismissed its cases against Capital One Financial Corporation, Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, Rocket Homes Real Estate LLC, and the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. Each one of the dismissals was with prejudice, preventing the agency from refiling these cases in the future.
The moves hint at a significant rollback of enforcement actions pursued under the Biden administration, which championed a robust CFPB to tackle financial industry excesses and shield consumers from predatory practices.
The Trump administration, by contrast, has been skeptical of the CFPB’s activities and has
taken steps to streamline its operations. Republicans have long viewed the CFPB as overreaching and unaccountable, with Thursday’s moves to drop the cases pointing to a broader retrenchment of its enforcement actions under President Donald Trump.
In the Capital One case, the CFPB had
sued the banking giant for allegedly cheating consumers out of more than $2 billion in interest payments on savings accounts. The lawsuit claimed Capital One violated consumer protection laws by failing to deliver the promised interest rates to customers, claims the company denied. The Feb. 27
notice of voluntary dismissal was filed at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The CFPB’s case against Vanderbilt
alleged that the mortgage lender, a subsidiary of Clayton Homes, set borrowers up to fail in manufactured home loans through unfair and deceptive practices. Vanderbilt’s business model allegedly ignored clear signs that borrowers couldn’t afford the loans, leading many families to struggle with payments and basic necessities. Vanderbilt denied the claims. The
notice of dismissal of the case was filed at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee on Feb. 27.
The consumer watchdog’s
lawsuit against Rocket Homes Real Estate LLC and its affiliates accused them of operating an illegal kickback scheme to steer borrowers to Rocket Mortgage. The CFPB alleged the company manipulated home buyers into using Rocket Mortgage services without proper disclosures. Rocket denied the allegations. The CFPB filed its Feb. 27
notice of dismissal of the lawsuit against Rocket Homes at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
The CFPB’s
lawsuit against student loan servicer Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency accused it of illegally pursuing borrowers for loans that had been discharged in bankruptcy and sending false information about consumers to credit reporting companies, violating federal protections. The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency denied the claims. The
notice of dismissal was filed at the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.
Advocacy group the Progressive Change Campaign Committee issued a strong rebuke in response to one of the dismissals.
“The CFPB just let Capital One off the hook for cheating consumers out of $2 billion,” the group said in a statement on social media. “Dismissing this case is a gift to one of the biggest banks in the country. The CFPB must hold corporate lawbreakers accountable—not side with them over consumers.”
Representatives for Capital One and the CFPB did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On the same day the dismissals were filed, Trump’s nominee to head the CFPB, Jonathan McKernan, testified before the Senate in a confirmation hearing.
McKernan criticized the agency’s past enforcement actions as excessive but said that if he’s confirmed, he would work to uphold the agency’s legal mandates.
“I’m fully committed to following the law fully and faithfully,” he said.
The CFPB’s prior director, Rohit Chopra,
left the agency shortly after Trump assumed office. An
appointee of President Joe Biden, Chopra was known for his aggressive regulatory agenda, which may have been misaligned with Trump’s pledge to cut regulations and slash the size of the federal bureaucracy.
Some in Trump’s orbit, including Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk and White House budget director Russel Vought, have called for the CFPB to be abolished entirely.
“Delete CFPB,” Musk wrote in a
post on X in November. “There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies.”
Democrats and others—including some Republicans—have
defended the CFPB as a vital safeguard against corporate misconduct, crediting it with returning billions of dollars to consumers through regulatory oversight and enforcement actions.
Reuters contributed to this report.
