Senator Warren says Trump’s CFPB overhaul cost Americans $26.5 billion

The Trump administration’s overhaul of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has cost Americans as much as $26.5 billion so far, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said Thursday, the latest Democratic criticism of sweeping changes made to the agency.

In a report first shared with CNBC, Warren said most of that number comes from moves made by the CFPB under Acting Director Russell Vaught to repeal rules capping credit card and overdraft fees.

The report comes as Vaught faces a Senate oversight hearing Thursday on those actions and others, including dismissal of enforcement actions, consent orders and the allegation that the agency recently removed 15 years of consumer data from the CFPB’s website.

Since taking office last year, the Trump administration has cut staff, dropped or narrowed dozens of enforcement cases, and rolled back Biden-era rules to refocus the agency on what officials call its core mission.

Republicans have defended the moves as necessary to rein in what they see as an overreaching regulator. Democrats led by Warren — who conceived and helped create the agency after the 2008 financial crisis — have asserted that the Trump administration has crippled a key consumer financial watchdog and exposed Americans to unfair or deceptive industry practices.

The clash comes as the Senate is considering the nomination of Brian Johnson, the former CFPB deputy director turned Capital One executive who has been appointed by President Donald Trump to permanently lead the agency.

Warren’s report attributes up to $15 billion in consumer costs to the CFPB’s decision to abandon a rule capping most credit card late fees at $8, a regulation the agency previously estimated would save consumers nearly $10 billion annually.

He attributes another $7.5 billion to the repeal of the bureau’s overdraft fee rule, which would have restricted many banks from charging $5 for overdrafts.

The remainder of the estimate comes from the CFPB’s decision to drop more than three dozen enforcement actions and settlements, some of which were set to send payments directly to consumers. That totaled about $4 billion, according to the report.

The White House and CFPB did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Before Thursday’s hearing, Warren also sent Vaught a letter cataloging what she described as unanswered congressional oversight requests during his time running the office.