CFPB Enforcement lead resigns, slam ‘attack’ on core mission in departure email

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Acting Director of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kara Peterson resigned from the agency on Tuesday. Announcing his decision, Peterson slammed the efforts of the Trump administration to destroy the agency, which was established as a banking watchdog after the 2008 global financial crisis.

Peterson wrote in an email viewed by CNN, “I have worked under every director and acting director in the history of the bureau and before that I have not seen the ability to perform my main mission under the attack.” “It is clear that the current leadership of the bureau has no intention of implementing the law in any meaningful way.”

The CFPB, which is worked to ensure that banks, lenders and other financial companies play fairly with consumers, have been thrown into anarchy since taking over as President Donald Trump this year. The agency has faced several collective trimmed efforts and suddenly decided to dismiss cases against several companies.

The CFPB Trump administration had an initial target of downsizing efforts, but its undo has been blocked to a large extent in the federal court. Republican has long been shut down the agency, whose composition was now handled by Elizabeth Warren who was now handled by a Democratic Senator of Massachusetts.

The agency was established as part of the Dod-Frank Act, a 2010 federal law enforced to address financial weaknesses that contributed to the global financial crisis. As of January 2025, CFPB has distributed $ 19.7 billion in consumer relief since its construction, 195 million people are eligible for that relief, according to the agency.

This year, CFPB suddenly dropped cases against several companies, already accusing consumers of hurting, such as Capital One, Rocket Holmes and Burkshire Hathaway, a unit of Hathaway, according to the court filing. The decision to quit cases reflects the rules of Trump administration for regulation.

In less than two weeks in Trump’s second term, he fired CFPB Director Rohit Chopra appointed by the then President Joe Biden in 2021. The new leadership of the agency has been reviewing the activities and employees of the agency since February, Mark Paoleta, the agency’s chief legal officer said that it was being filed in a court in April.

Paolata argued that, under previous administration, CFPB activities “have pushed well beyond the boundaries of the law” and the agency “is engaged in infiltration and waste fishing campaigns”.

In February, the Trump administration made the first attempt to intestate the CFPB, ordering the agency employees to stop operations. That instruction was challenged by a federal judge the following month.

In April, CFPB sent a pruning notice to about 1,500 of its 1,700 employees, soon after which an appellate court said that the agency could close some employees, but not so much that it could not complete its statutory functions.

A federal judge also stopped the large -scale pruning. The case is now being considered by the appellate court.

Although the courts have so far stopped the large -scale pruning in the agency, a CFPB employee of the enforcement team said they have worked for a total of three days since they were brought back to March. Many of his colleagues are in the same position.

The employee said, “It is very disappointing to active investigation and topics, as well as for the settlements,” the employee said, who requested an oblivion for fear of vengeance. “We have to be ‘kama-taiyar’, but there is very little work. I have maximized the work I can do.”

After Eric Helperin, Peterson became the acting head of the agency, who first led the enforcement branch of the agency, resigned in February.

Peterson wrote, “This has been disastrous through the end of the bureau’s enforcement ceremony, the incomplete dismissal of cases and the end of the disposal of the conversation, which leaves the wrongdoers from the hook,” Pietersen wrote.

Matt Egan of CNN contributed to reporting.