Warren says Trump-era CFPB overhaul may have cost consumers $26.5 billion

U.S. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a report that reforms to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, under the Trump administration may have imposed as much as $26.5 billion in extra costs on American consumers.

Warren said about $22.5 billion of that amount came from the CFPB scrapping limits on credit card late fees and bank overdraft charges. Another roughly $4 billion, she said, came from the agency abandoning some enforcement cases and consumer restitution agreements.

Report points to fee rules that were expected to cut consumer costs

According to the report, an earlier CFPB rule on credit card late fees would have capped most late fees at $8. That rule had been expected to save consumers about $10 billion a year.

A separate proposed rule on overdraft fees would have pushed banks to limit some overdraft charges to less than $5.

Warren says the agency’s consumer watchdog role was weakened

The report says Trump made broad changes at the CFPB, including staff cuts, pauses or reductions in multiple enforcement actions, and the rollback of some consumer protection rules introduced during the Biden administration.

Warren said those changes weakened the CFPB’s role as a consumer financial regulator and left consumers exposed to more unfair charges and financial risks. The CFPB and the White House did not immediately respond to the allegations in Warren’s report, CNBC said.