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By Douglas Gillison
(Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s rapid pullback of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has cost Americans at least $18 billion in higher fees and lost compensation for consumers allegedly cheated by major companies, according to an analysis released Tuesday by two organizations.
The increased consumer costs from the CFPB’s rollback of regulations on bank fees, wholesale dismissal of cases against banks and other lenders and the apparent failure to disburse funds intended for harmed borrowers run counter to Trump’s campaign pledges to ease the cost of living, according to the Student Borrower Protection Center and the Consumer Federation of America.
Representatives for the White House and CFPB did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside regular business hours.
Since Trump took control of the CFPB in February, calling for its elimination, administration officials have sought to reduce the workforce by about 90% and sharply curtail its industry oversight.
Administration officials accuse the agency and its former leadership of exceeding their legal powers, burdening free enterprise and engaging in politicized enforcement of consumer laws.
However, in a statement on Tuesday, the two organizations listed actions Trump’s team had taken that they said shifted costs onto consumers.
Under former President Joe Biden, the agency had sought to cap credit card late fees at $8 and overdraft fees at $5. The Trump administration’s move to end those policies should together cost consumers $15 billion a year, according to the statement.
The dismissal of 22 enforcement cases that were pending when Biden left office in January -- including actions against JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Capital One (NYSE:COF) -- involved more than $3 billion in alleged harm to consumers.
The CFPB has also scrapped or revised settlements it had already concluded with Toyota (NYSE:TM) and a payments processor, meaning about $50 million in redress payments will never be made, the statement said.