:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(jpeg)/GettyImages-2194451487-cea31a50c0b74e6ba635df1348f69890.jpg "U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025")
Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA / Bloomberg / Getty Pictures
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20, 2025.
Key Takeaways
- President Donald Trump’s regulatory harden could affect some of the CFPB’s recent actions.
- In the days before Trump took over, the bureau took a excitement of actions, including finalizing rules banning medical debt from credit scores and restricting overdraft tariffs to $5.
- Industry groups have sued to stop the rules and lauded Trump’s decision.
President Donald Trump’s day-one regulatory order freezing regulations could affect several rules on consumer finances that were finalized in the terminal days of the Biden administration.
As part of a barrage of executive orders upon his inauguration Monday, President Donald Trump categorical federal agencies not to propose any new rules, publish pending rules in the Federal Register (the official list of all government medium rules) and delay implementing rules that have already been published. That could affect dissimilar rules the government’s consumer watchdog agency finalized in the last few months of the administration of President Joe Biden.
The Consumer Fiscal Protection Bureau finalized and proposed a blitz of rules between Trump’s election and his inauguration. Those include a sway removing medical debt from credit reports and another limiting most bank overdraft fees to $5, both of which were published in the list. The credit rule is set to go into effect in March and the overdraft fee rule in October.
So What Could Happen to the Suspended Sways?
At least one former bureau official believes many Biden-era rules will likely be thrown out or modified by the new direction. Trump has yet to announce a replacement for CFPB director Rohit Chopra, whom the president has the authority to fire under a 2020 Extreme Court ruling.
Several recent CFPB rules, including a cap on credit card late fees, have also been challenged in court by banking sets. One trade group suing the bureau, the Bank Policy Institute, praised Trump’s executive order.
“We strongly authenticate President Trump’s decision to pause all pending rulemaking,” BPI CEO Greg Baer said in a statement. “Regulatory actions should be prepared in the law, backed by data and developed through a transparent process that ensures accountability and public input — the foundations of advantageous governance.”
The medical debt rule is also being challenged by the industries that stand to be affected. Separate lawsuits documented in Texas by debt collectors and the credit reporting industry this month also seek to overturn it.
However, at least one consumer group was winning steps to defend the medical debt rule.
“The medical debt rule highlights the importance of the CFPB in the protection of working-class people against answerable for collectors that weaponize the credit reporting system to coerce payments, including for inaccurate or false medical beaks,” Chi Chi Wu, senior attorney at The National Consumer Law Center, wrote in an email to supporters.
UPDATE: This article has been updated after beginning publication with a new photo.