Updated January 22, 2025

03:25 PM EST

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20, 2025.

Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

  • President Donald Trump’s regulatory freeze could affect some of the CFPB’s recent actions.
  • In the days before Trump took over, the bureau took a flurry of actions, including finalizing rules banning medical debt from credit scores and restricting overdraft fees to $5.
  • Industry groups have sued to stop the rules and lauded Trump’s decision.

President Donald Trump’s day-one executive order freezing regulations could affect several rules on consumer finances that were finalized in the last days of the Biden administration.

As part of a barrage of executive orders upon his inauguration Monday, President Donald Trump directed federal agencies not to propose any new rules, publish pending rules in the Federal Register (the official list of all government agency rules) and delay implementing rules that have already been published. That could affect several rules the government’s consumer watchdog agency finalized in the last few months of the administration of President Joe Biden.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized and proposed a blitz of rules between Trump’s election and his inauguration. Those include a rule removing medical debt from credit reports and another limiting most bank overdraft fees to $5, both of which were published in the register. The credit rule is set to go into effect in March and the overdraft fee rule in October.

So What Could Happen to the Suspended Rules?

At least one former bureau official believes many Biden-era rules will likely be thrown out or modified by the new administration. Trump has yet to announce a replacement for CFPB director Rohit Chopra, whom the president has the authority to fire under a 2020 Supreme Court ruling.

Several recent CFPB rules, including a cap on credit card late fees, have also been challenged in court by banking groups. One trade group suing the bureau, the Bank Policy Institute, praised Trump’s executive order.

“We strongly support President Trump’s decision to pause all pending rulemaking,” BPI CEO Greg Baer said in a statement. “Regulatory actions should be grounded in the law, backed by data and developed through a transparent process that ensures accountability and public input — the foundations of good governance.”

The medical debt rule is also being challenged by the industries that stand to be affected. Separate lawsuits filed in Texas by debt collectors and the credit reporting industry this month also seek to overturn it.

However, at least one consumer group was taking steps to defend the medical debt rule.

“The medical debt rule highlights the importance of the CFPB in the protection of working-class people against debt collectors that weaponize the credit reporting system to coerce payments, including for inaccurate or false medical bills,” Chi Chi Wu, senior attorney at The National Consumer Law Center, wrote in an email to supporters.

UPDATE: This article has been updated after initial publication with a new photo.

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  1. Bank Policy Institute. “BPI Statement on Trump Administration’s Freeze on Pending Rulemakings.”

  2. U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division via Bloomberg Law. “CDIA vs. CFPB.“

  3. U.S. District Court for Southern Division of Texas. “ACA International vs. CFPB.”