Warren criticizes CFPB director Vought for undermining Trump’s credit card affordability

Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Friday accused the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of undermining President Donald Trump’s stated push to make credit cards more affordable, according to a letter obtained exclusively by CNBC.

In a letter to acting CFPB Director Russell Vought, Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, noted that last year the agency dropped a rule limiting credit card late fees, sided with lenders in lawsuits over deceptive practices and temporarily halted enforcement actions against the industry.

Earlier this month, Trump demanded in a social media post that US banks voluntarily cap credit card interest rates at 10% for a year. When they didn’t, Trump this week called on lawmakers to pass legislation on the issue.

“I spoke with President Trump last week and told him that Congress could pass legislation to cap credit card rates if he would fight for it,” Warren wrote in her letter to Vaught.

“As Congress considers legislation to address this issue, your actions directly undermine the President’s stated goals,” she wrote. “Under your leadership, the CPFB has taken steps to make it easier — not harder — for big banks and credit card companies to rip off Americans.”

Warren’s letter exploits Trump’s pivot to affordability and seeks to leverage his initiative against his administration, escalating tensions over the financial regulatory agency she helped create under the Obama administration. Members of the Trump administration sought to close the CFPB as part of a broader pro-business deregulation agenda.

Current and former CFPB employees said the agency is on life support under Foote, who has fought in court to enact mass layoffs and defund the agency.

Vought’ must be using the full range of [the CFPB’s] “Authorities should address excessive credit card charges and crack down on bad actors,” rather than try to dismantle the agency, Warren wrote.

Warren said she directed Vought to “immediately reinstate its rule capping credit card late fees at $8, which will save Americans more than $10 billion annually.”

She stressed that Vought must also curb deceptive practices around deferred interest promotions in the industry, resume enforcement of rules around monitoring interest rate increases, respond to a growing pile of consumer complaints, and stop bait-and-switch tactics through rewards programs.

“Either President Trump is not serious about making credit cards affordable or you are cavalierly ignoring his directives,” she wrote.

The CFPB did not immediately respond to a request for comment.