Trump fires CFPB Director Rohit Chopra

President Trump fired Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Saturday, abruptly ending a five-year term scheduled to run through late 2026. The Associated Press reported that Chopra was notified of his firing in an email.

Chopra confirmed the news via a letter posted on X that read “With so much power concentrated in the hands of a few, agencies like the CFPB have never been more critical.”

The news comes a few weeks after inauguration day, with many surprised that Chopra outlasted President Trump’s initial government firing sweep.

Chopra was appointed in 2021 by former President Joe Biden to serve as the CFPB’s director. During his tenure, Chopra was known for his aggressive approach to enforcing consumer protection laws.

During his time at the bureau, Chopra led a crusade against junk and overdraft fees, which most large banks ended up abandoning or reducing. In 2022, Chopra ordered Wells Fargo to pay $2 billion in redress to over 16 million consumers harmed financially by the bank.

Per the New York Times, the bureau will be run by Zixta Martinez, the CFPB’s deputy director, until a new acting leader is selected by President Trump.

The bureau, created after the 2008 financial crisis to regulate mortgages, car loans and other consumer finances, has long been opposed by Republicans and their financial backers.

“Although Chopra recently attempted to highlight the two consumer financial protection issues on which he and President Trump agreed — debanking and credit card interest rate limits—it was always clear his days as Director were numbered,” said Peter Idziak, senior associate, Polunsky Beitel Green. “The only surprise in Chopra’s firing was that it took Trump almost two weeks to do so.  

“There had been talk in Washington that the Administration was waiting until they had a nominee or someone favorable who could serve as Acting Director before firing Chopra. But, so far, Trump has not named a nominee or appointed an Acting Director, so it’s not entirely clear why Trump decided to fire Chopra today,” Idziak said. “There are rumors that Trump plans to name Russ Vought as Acting Director if he is confirmed as OMB Director next week, which would mirror Trump’s appointment of then-OMB Director Mick Mulvaney as acting CFPB Director during his first term.”

While most in mortgage lending considered Chopra an enemy, consumer groups lauded his work at the CFPB. Jesse Van Tol, president and CEO at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, issued a statement that said, “[Chopra] lived up to the clear mandates of settled law. His team demonstrated how right lawmakers were to create this independent and focused watchdog, all while riding out predictable and cynical lawsuits from industry that failed to trick judges into dismantling what Congress had built.”