The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently released its Semi-Annual Report to Congress covering its activities from January to June 2026. The report describes the CFPB’s continued emphasis on deregulation, violations involving measurable consumer harm, voluntary remediation, and a shift away from reliance on novel legal theories and duplicative federal and state oversight. It highlights the CFPB’s significantly pared-down enforcement and supervisory activities while noting …
OCC Releases Yearlong Debanking Review, CFPB Opens Parallel Investigation
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) released findings from a yearlong review of nine of the largest national banks it supervises by asset size, covering the period from 2020 through September 2025. The review followed the Trump administration’s August 2025 Executive Order 14331, “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans,” which directed federal banking regulators to examine whether banks had engaged in unlawful debanking …
CFPB Highlights Major Changes to Fair Lending Approach in Annual Report
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently released its annual fair lending report, covering its fair lending activities in calendar year 2025, as well as certain 2026 actions it considered particularly relevant and important. The report reflects changes to the CFPB’s fair lending program, many in response to Trump administration executive orders, to streamline its fair lending activities by focusing on “proven, intentional racial discrimination …
House Bill Would Reshape CFPB Funding, Rulemaking, Supervision and Enforcement
Recently, House Republicans, led by Representative Andy Barr, introduced the Consumer Financial Protection Accountability and Reform Act of 2026 (HR 10184). The bill would make broad changes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) funding, governance, rulemaking, supervision and enforcement authorities, while also adding provisions addressing select consumer finance products and CFPB data practices. Key provisions The bill proposes the following changes: 1. Change CFPB …
Federal Agencies Rescind Interagency Statement on Special Purpose Credit Programs
Recently, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) – together, the agencies – jointly rescinded the “Interagency Statement on Special Purpose Credit Programs Under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation …
CFPB Seeks Input on Potential Reforms to Mortgage Disclosure Rules, Rescission Rights
On July 9, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a request for information (RFI) seeking public comment on proposed changes to the mortgage origination framework to improve credit availability and reduce compliance burdens for financial institutions. The RFI was issued pursuant to Executive Order 14393, “Promoting Access to Mortgage Credit” (March 13, 2026), which states that recent statutory and regulatory changes have limited access …
CFPB Reboots Customer Complaint System
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced several major updates to its consumer complaint portal. These updates build on prior changes to the CFPB portal and aim to address what the CFPB described as a “plague [of] issues that severely limit” the effectiveness and utility of the portal. The changes The CFPB announced seven changes to the system: Clarifying closure definition for consistency As companies’ …
CFPB Rescinds Advisory Opinion on Special Purpose Credit Programs
On June 17, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rescinded its 2020 advisory opinion “Equal Credit Opportunity (Regulation B); Special Purpose Credit Program,” which addressed regulatory uncertainty regarding the application of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act’s Regulation B to certain aspects of special purpose credit programs (SPCPs) “designed by for-profit organizations to meet special social needs.” The advisory opinion had clarified the content a for-profit …
Spotlight on CFPB’s Recent Statement on Ability to Pay and Immigration Status
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a statement reminding creditors that assessing a consumer’s ability to pay debt obligations under the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) may warrant or require consideration of immigration status when relying on an individual’s employment income. The statement follows a recent White House executive order designed to mitigate risks to the financial system “posed by the extension of credit …
White House Issues Executive Orders Targeting Financial System Integrity, Fintech Innovation
On May 19, 2026, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled, “Restoring Integrity to America’s Financial System.” The order is designed to mitigate risks to the financial system “posed by the extension of credit or financial services to the inadmissible and removable alien population.” The order stops short of requiring firms to verify each customer’s citizenship status – a controversial move that was reportedly …