CFPB Developments: Everything You Want to Know About the CFPB as Things Stand Today

We are delighted to have join us as our special guests two of the most experienced journalists who cover the CFPB: Jon Hill, Senior Banking Reporter, Law360 and Evan Weinberger, Correspondent, Bloomberg Law.

Here’s the situation in a nutshell:

1. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra was fired by President Trump on January 31. The heads of enforcement and supervision and general counsel have all left the agency. Many other employees have been terminated.

2. On that same date, President Trump appointed new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as CFPB Acting Director.

3. On February 7, President Trump appointed Russell Vought as a new CFPB Acting Director to replace Bessent.

4. Shortly thereafter, Vought essentially shut down all activities at the CFPB by, among other things, calling for a halt to all rulemaking, a pause to all litigation (with which courts have had conflicting decisions) in which the CFPB is a plaintiff or defendant, and a suspension of all examination and supervisory activities.

5. Vought later instructed all CFPB employees to work from home during the week of February 10. More recently, Vought has instructed all employees to stop doing any CFPB work. Even more employees were terminated.

6. Vought has announced that he will not be seeking the scheduled quarterly funding distribution from the Federal Reserve Board.

7. On February 11, President Trump nominated Jonathan McKernan to be the next Director of the CFPB.

8. Elon Musk and President Trump have called for the elimination of the CFPB.

9. A lawsuit has been filed in federal court by the City of Baltimore alleging that the result of all these actions is tantamount to an unlawful shutdown of the CFPB. The unions representing most of the CFPB employees have also brought two lawsuits. 

Throughout this period of upheaval at the CFPB, Ballard Spahr and our guest journalists have been inundated with questions, and on this webinar, we will try to address these plus additional questions that have been submitted to us at the time of registration. Even if you have no questions, you will not want to miss this unique opportunity to gain clarity during this tumultuous time.

We will try to answer the overarching question of whether these developments fall into the category of “Be careful what you wish for.”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

This program is approved for 1.5 CLE credits in CA, NV, NY, & PA; and 1.8 NJ. MN CLE Credit is pending. Uniform Certificates of Attendance will also be provided for the purpose of seeking credit in other jurisdictions.