Rohit Chopra-led Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to Place Google Under Formal Federal Supervision
- The order, however, doesn’t seem final, as Trump is expected to fire the Biden-appointed Indian American soon after taking office in January.
Under the leadership of director Rohit Chopra, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has “taken steps to place Google under formal federal supervision,” the Washington Post has reported. The move “could subject the technology giant to the regular inspections and other rigorous monitoring that the government imposes on major banks,” the report said. Google, meanwhile, “has fiercely resisted the idea over months of highly secretive talks,” the report further noted, citing two people familiar with the discussions.
Formed in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB helps consumer finance markets work by making regulations more effective, consistently and fairly enforcing rules, and empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives.
While the CFPB already conducts these inspections at large banks and credit unions, The Post reported that Chopra has “expressed alarm that the government does not always apply the same oversight to technology companies, even at a time when the financial tools they provide are similar to the bank accounts and payment systems long under close watch.”
However, “the exact scope of the CFPB’s concerns is not clear, and its order does not appear to be final,” The Post further noted, adding, “the political fate of the bureau’s work under Chopra is also in doubt.” Trump is expected to fire the Biden-appointed director, soon after taking office in January, Bloomberg Law reported.
Speculating the changes at that watchdog agency under Trump, Joann Needleman, the leader of Clark Hill PLC’s financial services regulatory and compliance practice, told Bloomberg Law that under the new administration, the CFPB will “likely focus less on writing ambitious regulations and prescriptive guidance documents, and instead limit its work to policing consumer financial services markets through more traditional tools deployed by the Federal Trade Commission.” That means “most, but potentially not all, of the rules completed by Chopra, are set to be eliminated altogether or weakened under a new director,” Needleman said.
Chopra was nominated in January 2021 to succeed Kathy Kraninger, a Trump-appointed official who had run the bureau from 2018 until January 2020. He was confirmed by the Senate in September 2021, along party lines. A tie-breaker on a procedural vote from Vice President Kamala Devi Harris, advanced Chopra’s nomination to the final vote.
The Washington Post reported at the time that progressives saw Chopra, “as an experienced and headstrong rulemaker who is not afraid to take a hard line against big banks,” while the conservatives said they “fear he will steer the bureau toward becoming an unaccountable regulatory body with an anti-business agenda.”
Before joining the CFPB, Chopra, a strong ally of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, served as a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission. At the FTC, he “pushed the agency to be more skeptical of private equity buyers and more aggressive in using its rulemaking powers to rein in businesses,” Bloomberg reported.