Regulatory burdens imposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have cost consumers between $237 billion and $369 billion since 2011, according to a White House report published Tuesday.
Calculations by the Council of Economic Advisers allege that CFPB rulemaking has led to an increase of $1,100 to $1,700 per originated mortgage, an increase of $91 to $143 per originated auto loan, and an increase of $80 to $126 per credit card loan.
That’s up to $183 billion in higher mortgage costs, up to $51 billion in higher auto loan costs and up to $116 billion in higher credit card costs, the CEA alleged.
The White House report comes on the heels of two reports – one by the Government Accountability Office and one by the Senate Banking Committee’s minority members – which detailed the CFPB’s downsizing.
The latter report, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, found that the CFPB’s paring – including the termination of numerous enforcement actions, consent orders and rules – has cost consumers up to $19 billion.
Roughly $5 billion of that cost came from the overturn of the Biden-era CFPB overdraft limit rule. About $10 billion came from credit card late fees, and $4 billion from the dismissal of a series of lawsuits against or settlements with companies that the Biden-era CFPB had found to violate consumer protections, the senators’ report said.
Warren called the CEA report “error-riddled,” the Financial Times reported Tuesday.
“Trump can try to claim that stopping banks from cheating you out of your own money is somehow bad for you, but anyone who knows the facts knows the CFPB has returned tens of billions directly to Americans who were scammed,” she told the FT.
But Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, the banking committee’s chair, said on social media site X that the CEA report “shows how the past misguided policies of the CFPB raised borrowing costs and made it harder for families to access mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards.”
“The Trump administration and [Republican senators] are focused on holding the CFPB accountable, lowering costs, and expanding opportunity for all Americans,” Scott wrote.
According to the CEA, the CFPB – which Acting Director Russell Vought has been trying to shut down for several months – has driven a reduction in loan originations overall, leading to an economic efficiency loss of between $1.5 billion and $5.7 billion to consumers.
“The annual paperwork burden alone from CFPB rules exceeds 29 million hours or the equivalent of 14,100 full-time employees spending all of their time on documentation and reporting requirements at a conservative cost of just under $2.5 billion,” the report said. “From 2011 to 2024, the Bureau’s paperwork burden costs have cost businesses $21 billion.”
Additionally, the CFPB received $8.9 billion in transfers from the Federal Reserve between 2011 and 2024. According to the CEA, those funds could have otherwise been transferred to the U.S. Treasury, and the loss of that revenue resulted in a marginal excess tax burden of $4.4 billion.
The National Consumer Law Center pushed back on the White House report Tuesday, saying “[t]he need for the CFPB is only increasing in the current economy.”
“A functioning, effective Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is essential in safeguarding people from unscrupulous companies that prey on working families,” Diane Thompson, NCLC deputy director and chief advocacy officer, said in a prepared statement. “In the midst of an affordability crisis and record consumer debt, it’s baffling that the administration is actively working against working families by seeking to dismantle the CFPB.”
