The Impact of the Election on the CFPB: What to Expect with Supervision and Enforcement During Trump 2.0

Our podcast show today features John Culhane and Mike Kilgarriff, partners in Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services group. They discuss what supervision and enforcement will look like under a new acting director/director appointed by President Trump. This episode is a repurposing of the second half of a webinar that was produced on January 6. On January 23, we released the first half of the webinar, which consisted of Alan Kaplinsky’s “fireside chat” with Kathy Kraninger, the former Director of the CFPB during Trump 1.0., linked here.

With respect to supervision, we consider, among others, the following issues with respect to the CFPB’s leadership under Trump 2.0:

(a) Will it be business as usual or more relaxed?

(b) Will it focus on compliance with the Federal consumer financial services laws and less on UDAAP?

(c) Will there be reduced staffing and fewer exams?

(d) Will there be fewer PAAR letters and more use of MRAS and MRIAs?

With respect to enforcement, we consider, among others, the following issues with respect to the CFPB’s leadership under Trump 2.0:

(a) Will there be an exhaustive review of all existing investigations and lawsuits and a dismissal of those which involve “regulation by enforcement” or “pushing the envelope”?

(b) Will they focus more on fraud and scams and less on UDAAP?

(c) What position will they take on whether the CFPB has been unlawfully funded because the Federal Reserve Banks have had no combined earnings since September 2022?

Alan Kaplinsky, Senior Counsel and former chair for 25 years of the Consumer Financial Services Group, hosts the discussion.