By Douglas Gillison
(Reuters) -Rohit Chopra, head of the top U.S. watchdog agency for consumer finance, announced early Saturday his time in office had ended after President Donald Trump fired him overnight, according to a letter Chopra posted online and a person familiar with the situation.
Chopra’s dismissal ends a term at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau during which he spent years sparring with the financial sector under former President Joe Biden.
“I know the CFPB is ready to work with you and the next confirmed director, and we have devoted a great deal of energy to ensure continued success,” Chopra wrote in a letter to Trump, which was posted on social media site X.
The Trump administration has not announced a replacement. U.S. Senator Tim Scott, the chair of the Senate Banking Committee, told reporters on Tuesday that he expected a “blockbuster announcement sometime soon” on who will take over from Chopra, according to The New York Times.
The White House did not immediately provide comment. But progressives quickly denounced his dismissal as a win for corporate misconduct foreshadowing renewed Republican efforts to abolish the agency.
“President Trump’s decision to fire CFPB Director Rohit Chopra marks the end of an era of strong consumer protection and the beginning of a plan to end this important agency,” Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said in a statement.
The removal of Chopra, who established a reputation as an aggressive watchdog under former President Joe Biden, was widely expected after he spent years sparring with the financial industry, which often argued he overstepped his bounds.
The leadership change clears the way for the Trump administration to pursue a less adversarial approach, including rescinding many of Chopra’s measures and pulling back from enforcement.
Long a target of conservatives seeking to undo reforms created following the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB survived possible abolition in May when the Supreme Court rejected industry-backed constitutional challenges to its funding structure. But with control of Congress, Republicans may still seek to overhaul some of Chopra’s major rules or push legislation that would allow Congress to weaken the agency.
Trump ally Elon Musk, tapped to lead an advisory body on deregulation, said on Nov. 27 that the agency should be “deleted.”
As the Biden White House battled to respond to voter outrage over inflation, Chopra became a key figure in the administration’s campaign against “junk fees,” which officials said were often hidden and unjustified and were squeezing already distressed household budgets.
During Chopra’s tenure, the CFPB contended with newly emboldened industry litigators who challenged several rules, including new CFPB rules on credit card late fees, consumer data rights and small business lending.
The agency also racked up big enforcement actions against name-brand financial institutions, including a $3.7 billion settlement with Wells Fargo over abusive consumer practices, the agency’s largest-ever enforcement action, as well as actions against Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs and Apple.
Unlike Biden’s other banking regulators, who told lawmakers in November they had ceased rulemaking ahead of Trump taking office, Chopra has pushed ahead with rulemaking activity in the final weeks of Biden’s administration and into the early days of the Trump administration.
(Reporting by Douglas Gillison and Pete Schroeder; additional reporting by Jasper Ward; editing by Michelle Price, Jonathan Oatis, Chizu Nomiyama and Diane Craft)
