Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Takes Over as CFPB Acting Director

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Monday (Feb. 3) that President Donald Trump designated Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the CFPB’s acting director Friday (Jan. 31).

It was reported Saturday (Feb. 1) that Trump fired former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra that morning, with a White House official saying, “It’s the executive’s decision and prerogative to see who they want in that role.”

Chopra confirmed in a Saturday post on social platform X that his term as CFPB director had ended.

In the CFPB’s Monday announcement that Bessent is serving as acting director, Bessent said: “I look forward to working with the CFPB to advance President Trump’s agenda to lower costs for the American people and accelerate economic growth.”

Bloomberg Law reported Monday that Bessent sent an email to CFPB staff, ordering them to stop all rulemaking, communications, litigation and other activities, with only activities authorized by Bessent or required by law being allowed to move forward.

“As Acting Director, Secretary Bessent is committed to appropriately stewarding the agency pending new leadership,” the email said, per the report.

The CFPB did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

Bessent was confirmed by the Senate as the nation’s new Treasury secretary Jan. 27.

During his confirmation hearing earlier in January, Bessent, a 62-year-old hedge fund manager, defended the Trump administration’s economic approach, saying that the federal budget deficit issue stems from spending rather than revenues. He also voiced confidence that Trump’s economic policies would reduce consumer costs and increase wages.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill of Arkansas said in a Monday statement that he applauded the selection of Bessent as acting director of the CFPB.

“I look forward to working with Acting Director and Treasury Secretary Bessent to finally rein in this unaccountable agency by putting the CFPB under the appropriations process, making it a bipartisan commission, and providing appropriate statutory guardrails,” he said in the statement.

The top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters of California, said in a Saturday press release that she opposed Trump’s firing of Chopra and Trump’s “stated plans to eliminate the agency.”

“Make no mistake, today’s decision is the first step by Trump, his co-President Elon Musk, and their Republican allies in Congress to dismantle the agency entirely, leaving consumers with no place to turn to for help and no real watchdog to hold predatory lenders and other bad actors accountable,” Waters said.

While Chopra’s firing was no surprise, questions swirl over what comes next, PYMNTS reported Monday. Rulemaking has been paused across all federal agencies, and the CFPB’s funding is being re-examined under Congressional fire. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas introduced the “Defund the CFPB Act” last week.