NEW YORK (AP) — One year after the Trump administration took control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the consumer watchdog has largely retreated from enforcement and regulatory work, changes that consumer advocates and Democrats now estimate have cost Americans at least $19 billion in financial relief.
In a report provided to The Associated Press ahead of its release by the office of Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday, the authors say the CFPB harmed consumers by abandoning major consumer protections, stalling investigation and dismissing a number of lawsuits.
“Trump’s attempt to sideline the CFPB has cost families billions of dollars over the last year alone,” said Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, as well as one of the bureau’s fiercest defenders in Congress.
The administration and congressional Republicans have argued that the bureau needed to be downsized and reined in because it had grown too large and overreaching.
The administration assumed control of the CFPB in February 2025 after Rohit Chopra, the bureau’s director under President Joe Biden, resigned, leaving White House budget director Russell Vought as acting director. Since then, few new investigations have been opened, many employees have been ordered not to work and several pending enforcement actions against financial companies have been dropped.
The White House announced in April that it wanted to reduce the Bureau’s staff from 1,689 positions to 207 positions, but that move has been blocked by courts. Even if the employees’ union does succeed in its lawsuit against Vought, Congress cut the bureau’s budget by roughly half in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It’s unlikely that all of those employees will still have their jobs once all litigation is settled.
“The CFPB may still be standing, but it’s essentially on life support,” said Chuck Bell, advocacy program director at Consumer Reports, in a statement. Consumer Reports put out its own data Monday that arrives at similar conclusions as Warren's office.
A spokeswoman for the CFPB did not respond to a request for comment.
One form of relief the report said consumers were denied was a limit on overdraft fees, which the Biden CFPB finalized in 2024 but the Republican-led Congress overturned last year. That would have saved consumers $5 billion a year, according to the Bureau’s estimates at the time.
The bureau also tried to cap the amount of money consumers pay to credit card companies when they pay their bills late. That would have saved Americans roughly $10 billion, according to Bureau estimates when the rule was proposed. The regulation was blocked by a federal court last year, and the bureau, under the control of the Trump administration, decided not to fight the lawsuit in court.
Another roughly $4 billion in consumer relief would have come from a series of lawsuits or settlements that were dismissed by the bureau under Acting Director Vought. For example, the bureau sued Capital One in January 2025 for $2 billion, days before President Trump was to be sworn into office, alleging that Capital One has misrepresented the interest rate paid on its savings accounts to customers. That lawsuit was dismissed.
The bureau also sued Early Warning Systems, the company that runs the money transfer service Zelle, in December 2024 for $870 million alleging that the EWS and the banks that operate Zelle were negligent in protecting consumers from fraud and scams. That lawsuit was also dismissed last year.
There's also been a slowdown in the number of complaints resolved by the bureau as well. The CFPB runs its own consumer complaint database, where a consumer can allege wrongdoing by their bank or financial services company and the bureau will act as intermediary between the consumer and financial company to resolve the complaint. Under the Biden CFPB, roughly half of all consumer complaints were resolved with relief for the consumer, whereas under the Trump CFPB, that figure has dwindled to less than 5%.
The independent Government Accountability Office made public a separate report Monday outlining its attempts to keep track of the Trump administration’s reorganization and restructuring of the CFPB. The GAO said it received no cooperation from the White House or the bureau, and the GAO needed to rely on mostly public records to produce its report. In a response to the GAO, the CFPB cited ongoing litigation between its employees and management as the primary reason why it could not cooperate.
The GAO’s report largely matches what has been documented in news reports that the bureau has cancelled dozens of enforcement actions against alleged wrongdoers, unwound rules and regulations that previous bureau management said would protect consumers or bring them financial relief. There have been even rules and regulations enacted during President Trump’s first term that have been targeted by the bureau’s current management.
Mark Paoletta, the bureau's chief legal officer and effectively its deputy director under Vought, called the GAO’s report “biased and flawed” in a letter to the agency did not raise any specific issues with its conclusions, other than to say the GAO was working with incomplete information.
FILE - A security officer works inside of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) building headquarters, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
CAIRO (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump's appeal to China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others to send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz “open and safe” brought no commitments on Sunday as oil prices soar during the Iran war.
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told CBS that Tehran has been “approached by a number of countries” seeking safe passage for their vessels, “and this is up to our military to decide.” He said a group of vessels from “different countries” had been allowed to pass, without providing details.
Iran has said the strait, through which one-fifth of global oil exports normally pass, is open to all except the United States and its allies.
Araghchi added that “we don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans” about finding a way to end the war, noting that Israel and the U.S. started the fighting with coordinated attacks on Feb. 28 during indirect U.S.-Iran talks on Iran's nuclear program. He also said Tehran had “no plan to recover” the enriched uranium that is under rubble following U.S. and Israeli attacks last year.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told NBC he has been “in dialogue” with some of the countries Trump mentioned, and said he expected China “will be a constructive partner” in reopening the strait.
But countries made no promises.
Britain said Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday discussed with Trump the importance of reopening the strait "to end the disruption to global shipping,” and spoke with Canada’s prime minister about it separately.
A spokesperson for China’s embassy to the U.S., Liu Pengyu, said “all parties have the responsibility to ensure stable and unimpeded energy supply” and that China would “strengthen communication with relevant parties” for de-escalation.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said it “takes note” of Trump’s call and that it “will closely coordinate and carefully review” the situation with the U.S.
Expectations are high that Trump will ask Japan directly when Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi meets him on Thursday at the White House.
France previously said it is working with countries — President Emmanuel Macron mentioned partners in Europe, India and Asia — on a possible international mission to escort ships through the strait but has stressed it must be when “the circumstances permit,” when fighting has subsided.
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul of Germany, which was not mentioned in Trump's call, told ARD television: “Will we soon be an active part of this conflict? No.”
Meanwhile, emergency oil stocks “will soon start flowing to global markets,” the International Energy Agency said Sunday, describing the collective action to lower prices “by far the largest ever.”
It updated last week’s announcement of 400 million barrels to nearly 412 million. Asian member countries plan to release stocks “immediately,” and reserves from Europe and the Americas will be released “from the end of March.”
Gulf Arab states including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain reported new missile or drone attacks a day after Iran called for the evacuation of three major ports in the United Arab Emirates — the first time it has threatened a neighboring country’s non-U.S. assets.
Tehran has accused the U.S. of launching Friday's strikes on Kharg Island, home to Iran’s primary oil terminal, from the UAE, without providing evidence. It has threatened to attack U.S.-linked “oil, economic and energy infrastructures” if its oil infrastructure is hit.
U.S. Central Command said it had no response to Iran’s claim, and Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, rejected it. Gulf countries that host U.S. bases have denied allowing their land or airspace to be used for military operations against Iran.
Iran has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Arab Gulf neighbors during the war, causing significant damage and rattling economies even as most are intercepted. Tehran says it targets U.S. assets, even as Iranian strikes are reported at civilian sites such as airports and oil fields.
Iranian strikes have killed at least a dozen civilians in Gulf countries, most of them migrant workers.
In Iran, the International Committee for the Red Cross said more than 1,300 people have been killed. Iran’s Health Ministry said 223 women and 202 children are among the dead, according to Mizan, the judiciary’s official news agency.
Iran’s government on Sunday showed journalists buildings damaged by strikes in Tehran on Friday. A police station was hit and surrounding buildings were damaged. Some apartments’ outer walls had been stripped away.
“God had mercy on all of us,” said Elham Movagghari, a resident. Other Iranians are leaving the country.
In Israel, 12 people have been killed by Iranian missile fire and more have been injured, including three on Sunday. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed, six in a plane crash in Iraq last week.
At least 820 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to its Health Ministry, since Iran-backed Hezbollah hit Israel and Israel responded with strikes and sent additional troops into southern Lebanon. In just 10 days, more than 800,000 people — nearly one out of every seven residents of Lebanon — have been displaced.
Israel’s military said early Monday that Iran launched missiles toward Israel.
Earlier, several strikes hit central Israel and the Tel Aviv area, where they caused damage at 23 sites and sparked a small fire. Magen David Adom, Israel’s rescue service, released video showing a large crater in a street and shrapnel damage to an apartment building.
Israel’s military says Iran is firing cluster bombs that can evade some air defenses and scatter submunitions across multiple locations.
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, Frankel from Jerusalem and Anna from Lowville, New York. Associated Press journalists Sally Abou AlJoud and Fadi Tawil in Beirut, John Leicester in Paris, Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, and Fatima Hussein and Tia Goldenberg in Washington contributed to this report.
This version corrects to say Araghchi was speaking to CBS, not NBC as previously reported.
People walk past tents sheltering people displaced by Israeli airstrikes at a public space along the Beirut waterfront at sunset in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
People gather outside an apartment building damaged by an Iranian missile strike in Bnei Brak, Israel, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
People shout slogans during an anti U.S. and Israeli rally outside the U.S. consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, March 15, 2026. The sign reads in Turkish: "Leave NATO, close the bases." (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Heavy rain falls over tents sheltering people displaced by Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon and Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, along the Beirut waterfront in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv, Israel, early Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Volunteers clean debris from a residential building damaged when a nearby police station was hit Friday in a U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A cargo ship sails in the Arabian Gulf towards Strait of Hormuz in United Arab Emirates, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Firefighters extinguish fire at a site damaged during an Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Volunteers clean debris from a residential building damaged when a nearby police station was hit Friday in a U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Home Front Command officer works at an apartment damaged after an Iranian strike in Bnei Brak, Israel, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Smoke rises from the rubble of buildings destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A man photographs the rubble of buildings destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv, Israel, early Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Smoke rises from the U.S. embassy building in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ali Jabar)
Mourners react during the funeral ceremony for Gen. Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Defense Council and a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader who was killed in a strike, at the courtyard of the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Two men ride their motorbike past a billboard of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Fire and plumes of smoke rise from an oil facility in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
A man chants slogan while the body of Gen. Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran's Defense Council and a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader who was killed in a strike, is being buried at the courtyard of the Imamzadeh Saleh shrine in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
