Trump Names Scott Bessent To Be Acting CFPB Chief

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been appointed acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency announced Monday.

Bessent will helm the agency until a full-time director is nominated and confirmed. President Donald Trump fired Rohit Chopra, the Biden appointee who had led the agency since October 2021.

“I look forward to working with the CFPB to advance President Trump’s agenda to lower costs for the American people and accelerate economic growth,” Bessent said in a statement.

Republicans have long criticized the bureau, which they see as an unaccountable regulator with too broad a reach. Bessent is expected to lead a review of a flurry of rules and enforcement actions that Chopra advanced on his way out the door.

Bessent offered few hints of his views of the CFPB in an 81-page response to questions for the record from the Senate Finance Committee ahead of his confirmation as Treasury secretary.

Asked if he thought the bureau should be abolished, he responded, “The CFPB was created by legislation passed by Congress. I look forward to working with the incoming director of the CFPB as appropriate to ensure that the Bureau can be effective at fulfilling its statutory mission.”