Key Points
- For years, American financial companies have fought the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the courts and media.
- Now, with the CFPB on life support after the Trump administration issued a stop-work order and shuttered its headquarters, the agency finds itself with an unlikely ally: the same banks that reliably complained about its rules and enforcement actions.
- If the Trump administration succeeds in reducing the CFPB to a shell of its former self, banks would suddenly find themselves competing with non-bank financial players, including big tech and fintech firms with far less federal scrutiny than FDIC-backed institutions.
- “Payment apps like PayPal, Stripe, Cash App, those sorts of things, they would get close to a free ride at the federal level,” said David Silberman, a veteran banking attorney.
