NEW REPORT: Top 20 actions the CFPB took in 2022 to ensure a safer marketplace

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WASHINGTON — Amidst uncertainty over the future funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), PIRG on Thursday released a new report, “Watching Wall Street: Top 20 Actions the CFPB Took in 2022 Making the Marketplace Safer for Consumers.” This report, on the heels of the March 9 U.S. PIRG Education Fund report “Big Credit Bureaus, Record Complaints: a look at increases in CFPB consumer complaints 2021-2022,” recaps the top 20 actions the CFPB took to help consumers in 2022, the first full calendar year with new Director Rohit Chopra at the helm.

“After three years of the Trump Administration limiting the CFPB’s effectiveness, Acting Director Dave Uejio started getting the bureau back on track. Then, Director Rohit Chopra took over in October 2021, and the CFPB has been protecting consumers better than ever before,” said Mike Litt, consumer campaign director at PIRG. 

Since opening its doors in 2011, the CFPB has recouped about $16 billion for consumers, enforced consumer protection laws by taking more than 300 actions against companies and processed more than 3 million consumer complaints against financial companies. 2022 was an especially active year for the agency.

“Despite — or likely, because of — its record, the CFPB finds itself under attack by special interests intent on seeing it weakened,” said Ed Mierzwinski, senior director for federal consumer programs at PIRG.

The Supreme Court announced in late February that it would take up a case about the constitutionality of the CFPB’s independent funding. In early March, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy, led by Chairman Andy Barr (KY-06), held a hearing to usher in a slew of bills, including one that would leave the CFPB’s funding up to Congress, that would undermine the bureau’s ability to do its job.

“If the CFPB becomes the only banking regulator subject to Congressional appropriations, Congress could starve the most pro-consumer federal agency of the funding it needs to protect Americans from businesses that mistreat them,” said Litt.

The top 5 actions from 2022 highlighted in the “Watching Wall Street” report are:

  1. Ordering Wells Fargo to Pay a Record $3.7 Billion
  2. Launching an Initiative to Save Americans Billions of Dollars in Junk Fees
  3. Paving the Way for Changes to Medical Debt Reporting
  4. Examining the Marketplace to Nip Problems in the Bud
  5. Processing Record Numbers of Consumer Complaints

The remainder of the Top 20 — plus a bonus entry — are outlined in the report.

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