The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which implements and enforces federal consumer financial laws, is currently shuttered and is about to have its third leader this year.
President Donald Trump nominated Jonathan McKernan to take over the agency, following short stints as acting directors of the CFPB by Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent and the leader of the Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought.
McKernan recently left his post on the board of the FDIC after two years.
His nomination follows Vought ordering a halt to the agency’s work and the closing of its offices, according to numerous reports.
Vought also said on X he notified the Federal Reserve that the CFPB would not be taking its draw of funding.
“The Bureau’s current balance of $711.6 million is in fact excessive in the current fiscal environment. This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off,” Vought said on X.
The Dodd-Frank Act Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed by Congress in 2010 created the CFPB. It was in reaction to the 2008 financial crisis.
In May 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the funding for the CFPB was constitutionally valid.
“Congress charged the Bureau with enforcing consumer financial protection laws to ensure ‘that all consumers have access to markets for consumer financial products and services and that markets for consumer financial products and services are fair, transparent, and competitive,’” Justice Clearance Thomas wrote in the majority opinion in the case.
The CFPB was active in the automotive industry with financing rules under former director Rohit Chopra. A case it filed against auto loan servicer USASF landed a $42 million penalty. The agency also published several reports on auto finance.
