The first 100 days of the Trump administration have included dramatic changes at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The agency has retreated from many of its enforcement litigations, initiated reductions in force currently subject to legal challenges in federal court, and most recently, explained its shifting priorities for consumer protection in a detailed internal memorandum.
Specifically, on April 16, 2025, the CFPB's Chief Legal Officer, Mark Paoletta, sent an internal memorandum ("the Memo") to employees detailing the agency's supervision and enforcement priorities moving forward. According to the Memo, the Bureau's focus will be on "pressing threats to consumers, particularly service members and their families, and veterans." The Memo rescinded all previously issued priority documents and noted that, to focus on what Paoletta referred to as tangible harms to consumers, the Bureau would be shifting resources away from all supervision and enforcement that can be accomplished by the States.
The Memo laid out the following priorities:
- Depository institutions. The Memo described a focal shift back to depository institutions, noting that 70% of the Bureau's supervision activity in 2012 focused on depository institutions and banks, with only a 30% focus on nonbanks. The Memo claims that this 70/30 split has reversed in recent years, and the Bureau interns to return to the 2012 proportions.
- Fraud against consumer. The Memo detailed the Bureau's planned focus on "actual fraud against consumers, where there are identifiable victims with material and measurable consumer damages as opposed to matters based on the Bureau's perception that consumers made 'wrong' choices." (emphasis in original)
- Narrowed subject areas. The Memo listed the CFPB's areas of priority as mortgages (to receive the highest priority); FCRA/Reg V data furnishing violations; FDCPA/Reg F relating to consumer contracts/debt; and fraudulent overcharges and fees.
The Memo also highlighted what the Bureau plans to de-prioritize, including: medical debt; peer-to-peer platforms and lending; student loans; remittances; consumer data; and digital payments. The Memo also discussed the Bureau's intent to reduce Supervisory exams by 50%, describing the need to eliminate the pursuit of novel legal theories and also to respect federalism by deprioritizing supervision where States have similar supervisory authority. The CFPB will also minimize duplicative enforcement where state regulators are already investigating the same matter.
On the subject of racial discrimination, the Memo noted the Bureau's intent to focus on matters with "actual intentional racial discrimination and actual identified victims" as opposed to disparate impact analyses. The Memo stressed that such matters will be brought to leadership's attention with the intent to seek maximum penalties.
This Memo comes as the Bureau fights the courts on an attempted reduction in force ("RIF"). The Bureau attempted in March to significantly reduce its workforce, but was blocked by a federal court. Most recently, the DC Circuit has clarified that before firing someone, the CFPB must make a "particularized assessment" determining that "each division or office within the [CFPB] will be able to perform any statutorily required duties of that office without the employees subject to the RIF." An evidentiary hearing related to the RIF is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, April 29, 2025.
Consistent with these shifting priorities and attempts to reduce the size of the agency, the CFPB has scaled back its enforcement litigation docket. Since President Trump took office, the CFPB has either voluntarily dismissed, withdrawn from, or received a stay in over two dozen of its cases in federal court. As shown below, currently, only eight matters remain active.
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