Who is Watching Out for Consumers?

New leadership at Consumer Bureau changes focus: Will it be a win for consumers?

Andy Spears
2 min readMar 2, 2022

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Photo by Joshua Sukoff on Unsplash

When a new President takes office, it means new leadership at key institutions in government. In the case of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), President Joe Biden selected Rohit Chopra to take over a bureau that had been formed by Elizabeth Warren and Barack Obama but under President Trump, had turned into a friend of the very industries it was meant to regulate.

Consumer Groups Praise Chopra Pick | by Andy Spears | Medium

Advocates for consumers were initially hopeful that Chopra’s selection would signal a change in direction. Just over a year after the announcement that Chopra would head the agency tasked with protecting consumers interacting with a range of financial institutions, those same groups are seemingly beyond thrilled with the results.

Among those heaping praise on Chopra and the “new look” CFPB is Ed Mierzwinski of U.S. PIRG. In a recent blog post, Mierzwinski notes that the CFPB is taking on a number of key battles on behalf of consumers.

Yesterday’s announcement of a new report finding stupefying amounts of medical debt on consumer credit reports continues the Biden Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s focus on identifying and responding to consumer pain points caused by a financial marketplace that doesn’t always work for consumers. Overdraft fees, junk fees, Big Tech’s entry into payments, illegal auto repossessions, prepaid card contractors “siphoning” government benefits, for-profit college schemes and on and on — the CFPB’s got your back!

Read more from Ed on the fights the CFPB is waging on behalf of American consumers.

CFPB focuses on consumer pain points | U.S. PIRG (uspirg.org)

Here’s more on some recent CFPB activity that could signal big wins for consumers:

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Andy Spears

Writer and policy advocate living in Nashville, TN —Public Policy Ph.D. — writes on education policy, consumer affairs, and more . . .