Rohit Chopra, the Biden administration-appointed director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), was not part of yesterday’s inauguration festivities for President Donald Trump. However, Chopra didn’t take the day off – he was busy on X boasting about his agency’s ongoing enforcement actions against financial services companies.
Chopra made no mention of the new Trump administration in his X postings, instead citing the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday to highlight the CFPB’s latest actions.
“Martin Luther King, Jr. frequently talked about how the American Dream couldn’t be achieved without housing and economic opportunities for all,” he posted. “The @CFPB is announcing new actions on redlining, combatting old-school exclusion and new forms of digital discrimination using AI.”
Chopra continued, “First, @CFPB took action against Draper & Kramer for illegal, discriminatory mortgage lending in the Chicago and Boston areas. This law enforcement action is part of a series of efforts to combat modern-day redlining. In addition, @CFPB released a report on our inspections of credit card and auto lenders that use artificial intelligence. Our data scientists and examiners identified ways that algorithms could be optimized to avoid digital discrimination.”
In addition to Draper & Kramer, Chopra’s CFPB went into enforcement overdrive last week with new actions against Capital One, Equifax, Cash App, American Honda Finance Corporation and the National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts. This occurred despite calls from congressional leaders for the federal regulatory agencies to pause enforcement actions in the waning days of the Biden White House.
Chopra, a political ally of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), did not follow other Biden appointees in stepping down ahead of the Trump inauguration. As of this writing, the Trump administration has not named a new CFPB director. The online news site Sludge reported that the administration is considering Melissa Holyoak, a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, for the position.
