WASHINGTON, D.C.—Dennis Kelleher, President, CEO, and Co-founder, issued the following statement in response to the DC Circuit Court’s decision allowing the Trump administration to effectively kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB):
“Hardworking Main Street Americans are ripped off every day by gigantic financial firms when they use their credit and debit cards, savings and checking accounts, or get a personal, auto, home or other type of loan. They are even discriminated against due to their race, ethnicity or other characteristics unrelated to their credit worthiness. Often those Americans didn’t even know they are being ripped off and even those that did don’t have the resources to fight giant financial firms with armies of lawyers. Until the CFPB was created after the 2008 crash to stand up for and fight for those ripped off Americans.
“Since then, the CFPB has been the most successful consumer protection agency in the history of the country and it has a record to prove it: it has forced financial firms to provide relief worth almost $20 billion to almost 200 million ripped off Americans in all 50 states since it was created 14 years ago. That’s why Wall Street’s biggest banks and Trump’s financier allies hate the CFPB: it’s an effective cop on the finance beat and has stood side-by-side with hundreds of millions of Americans—Republicans and Democrats—battling financial predators, scammers, and crooks.
“Rather than stand up for those Main Street Americans, the Trump administration is slapping them in the face, siding with the financial industry and the crooks, and doing everything possible to kill the CFPB. Today’s court decision, decided by two judges appointed by Trump, effectively authorizes Trump to kill the CFPB and virtually guarantees that Trump will do that.
“This is a gigantic win for Wall Steet’s biggest banks and the financial industry, but Main Street Americans are going to pay the price. This will be tragic for many millions of Americans who will be ripped off, often those least able to afford it. But is also going to make financial crashes and bailouts like 2008 more likely. Remember, that crash was started, fueled, and spread by individual predatory subprime loans that were rolled up into a cornucopia of derivatives that crippled the global financial system and led to trillions in bailouts for Wall Street and the broader financial industry. Politicians abandoned Main Street in the years before the 2008 crash and in the years afterwards. Here, the Trump administration is doing the same and the result will be the same: Main Street is getting screwed and Wall Street will get rich then bailed out.”
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Better Markets is a non-profit, non-partisan, and independent organization founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to promote the public interest in the financial markets, support the financial reform of Wall Street and make our financial system work for all Americans again. Better Markets works with allies—including many in finance—to promote pro-market, pro-business and pro-growth policies that help build a stronger, safer financial system that protects and promotes Americans’ jobs, savings, retirements and more. To learn more, visit www.bettermarkets.org.
