New York Watchdog warns that Trump cuts “Open Season” for fraudsters | will initiate US policy

The financial guards of New York City raises the alarm on the tender of an important federal authority of the Trump administration, which monitors the financial protection laws of consumers, and warns that they will initiate an “open season” for fraudsters.

Brad Lander, New York's compatroller and candidate for the city's mayor's race, said that the uprooting of the Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) consumer will make many Americans for fraud and that predatory credit management will make the Federal Authority supervisory authority. Lander asks the state and local governments to compensate for the surveillance gap.

“Without public relations and investigations, casemaking and law enforcement, I fear that it will be an open season, and these bad actors will simply rebuild things because they know that they are probably not caught,” said Lander in an exclusive interview with the Guardian.

The CFPB was created after the 2008 financial crisis and has reclaimed more than $ 17.5 billion for consumers in the event of compensation, debt cancellation and other aid measures and collected $ 4 billion in terms of punishments by enforcing consumer protection laws.

Although only a few Americans have ever had a direct interaction with CFPB, the agency played a key role in regulating the financial markets, the persecution of consumer complaints and the submission of legal disputes against companies that were accused of cheating consumers. In 2022, Wells Fargo agreed to pay consumers and a penalty of USD 1.7 billion $ 3.7 billion – $ 2 billion – after the CFPB had accused it with a variety of fraud and fraud against consumers, including the collection of illegal fees.

The Republicans have long been critical of the agency and accuse them of maintaining the regulatory presentation. CFPB is now located in the crosshair of the so -called “Department of Government Efficency” (Doge), which was led by Elon Musk until recently.

The White House gave the CFPB to serious cuts and took almost 1,500 of the agency's 1,700 employees on layoffs, which would be 90% reduced. According to the employees, it was reported to the employees that CFPB would only exist “only in the name”.

Although the CFPB establishments were tied up in court-a Federal Court of Justice temporarily blocked the shots and planned a hearing for mid-Mays, Lander said that the agency had already been significantly weakened since Trump took office.

“Even if you keep your work technically and paid for, it is clear that the CFPB is already a shadow of its former self and does not work to protect consumers from predatory lending, junk fees, and to protect so many other things,” said Lander.

This has caused borrowers, especially those with student loans, particularly susceptible to unfair practices that are common in the industry.

When Claire Bleiler checked her creditworthiness in March, it had dropped by 100 points.

When she examined the reason for the sudden change, she learned that she was almost 120 days late for her student loan payments she had at Autopay.

In confused and frustrated, Bleiler learned that her serviceer from the student loan Autopay had turned off. The company said Bleiler that nothing could be done and that it should continue to make its payments normally.

It takes years to create creditworthiness, and the delinquencies remain in a person in a person for seven years.

“What this means for my life is devastating for me.” Said Bleiler. “I worked very, very hard. I realized very early on that the only way to get a loan, the only way to build money was to have a decent creditworthiness.”

The pandemic put millions of Americans with student loans in a tailpin when federal loans for students were taken into a break for more than three years that covered two presidential administrations in order to recognize the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic. The repayment of ramps back to the regular loan repayment was difficult, especially with the beginning of Donald Trump's second term.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the estimated 9 million borrowers have dropped in the past few months when companies who manage the student loans have been touched on the credit reports for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic.

In December, the CFPB published a report in which student marlendia carried out a number of illegal activities for the student loans, including misleading borrowers and no instructions for repayment.

As a rule, the CFPB would pursue such a report to ensure that companies have taken corrective measures, but Lander and other wax dogs say that CFPB has given up such responsibilities.

And among the more than dozen lawsuits against companies that the CFPB has been registered since Trump's second term, a lawsuit against national student-student loan trust, is a private student loan loan that the agency had accused of borrowers. The company should pay an agreement of $ 2.25 million with borrowers before the agency made the lawsuit.

In view of such an enforcement and surveillance gap, Lander calls on state and local legislators to increase their own consumer protection laws and to help consumers in need of protection.

Lander is a candidate of the overcrowded public service race in New York City and has a consumer protection platform that includes the use of urban resources to monitor deception performance practices, which requires the transparency of fees for the removal of junk fees, the review of consumer complaints and support consumers with potential stress.

In 2020, he pointed out the Price Management Act in New York, which prohibited the company to increase prices during Covid 19 pandemic as an example of how a local government protected its consumers. The city also used part of its COVID-19-help to buy back medical debts for some New York.

The Lander plan was praised by former financial guards, including the former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Lina Khan and Lorelei Salas, the former head of CFPB supervisory policy.

“Some people may not be aware of what the CFPB is doing, but the authority of the office has influenced all whether they are someone who takes up a loan for a car or a mortgage. But even if you haven't done it, you just have a bank account and you will be valued for all types of junk fees,” said Salas. “It is time for these states and communities to appear and what they can do to close the gaps.”