Former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra is back atop a consumer watchdog, this time in California.
Chopra will lead the Golden State’s new Business and Consumer Services Agency, which is launching July 1 with the dissolution of the state’s current Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, according to a Tuesday press release.
“While federal agencies are making life more expensive and enriching special interests, California will be firing on all cylinders to make sure markets aren’t rigged against families and small businesses,” Chopra said in a prepared statement.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a government reorganization that would split the BCSHA into two separate organizations, with one dedicated to business regulation and consumer protection and the other to tackling housing and homelessness, respectively.
The new BCSA will provide oversight to numerous agencies, including the Department of Consumer Affairs and Department of Financial Protection and Innovation.
“By bringing together dozens of boards, bureaus and departments under one roof, California’s new agency will work to protect the public in health care, technology, financial services, and more,” Chopra said. “I’m grateful to Governor Newsom for the opportunity to serve as the new agency’s Secretary.”
The BCSA will strengthen oversight and improve coordination across departments, as well as modernize California’s consumer protection framework as enforcement at the federal level wanes, California officials said.
State and city agencies have also picked up the mantle as the CFPB has deemphasized facets of its previous mission. Baltimore, for example, sued the fintech MoneyLion last year, alleging it misled and manipulated consumers.
Chopra led the CFPB under President Joe Biden, cracking down on so-called “junk fees” and unfair practices harming consumers. He left the consumer watchdog agency last February.
The CFPB under Chopra was a much different organization, and larger, than under Acting Director Russell Vought, whose efforts to shrink the agency and drop lawsuits began early in the second Trump administration. Vought said in October that he expected the agency to be shuttered within “two to three months.”
Though Vought has yet to shutter the agency, he’s slimmed down rules, abandoned enforcement actions and is looking to halve its staff.
Between his time leading the CFPB and his upcoming role in California, Chopra was tapped five months ago by the Democratic Attorneys General Association to lead its consumer protection and affordability working group within its policy arm, DAGA posted on LinkedIn.
