President Donald Trump has fired Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Rohit Chopra.
Chopra, who was appointed in 2021 by former President Joe Biden, will also no longer be a board member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Under Chopra's leadership, the CFPB has brought in rules limiting bank overdraft fees and credit card late fees, introduced open banking and BNPL regulation, and moved to increase oversight of Big Tech's entry into the payments arena.
The bureau has also taken an aggressive approach to enforcement, suing major banks over fraud on the Zelle P2P payments app and, just last month, hitting Block and Wise with big fines.
Chopra's leadership won him many critics in the financial and technology worlds, with Richard Hunt, executive chairman of the Electronic Payments Coalition, saying his tenure “was marked by witch-hunts and political weaponization”.
The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Tim Scott, says that Chopra's removal is “great news”.
In contrast, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, Elizabeth Warren, says that under Chopra the CFPB “is holding Wall Street accountable”.
In his letter to Trump, Chopra says: "I know the CFPB is ready to work with you and the next Director, and we have devoted a great deal of energy to ensure continued success."
Specifically, he welcomes Trump's "promising proposal" on capping credit card interest rates.