New York CNN —
President Donald Trump has fired Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Chopra received an email from the White House on Saturday morning informing him of the firing, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
Chopra, who has been targeted by Republican lawmakers for putting restrictions on financial institutions in favor of consumers, announced his departure in a post on X on Saturday.
“This letter confirms that my term as CFPB Director has concluded. I know the CFPB is ready to work with you and the next confirmed Director, and we have a great deal of energy to ensure continued success,” Chopra wrote.
The CFPB declined to comment on the news.
“It’s the executive’s decision and prerogative to see who they want in that role,” a White House official told CNN.
Major consumer banks including Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase are among companies facing lawsuits from the CFPB. They, alongside tech industry leaders, have encouraged Trump to remove Chopra from his role — which was made possible by a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that enabled presidents to fire CFPB directors.
Chopra was appointed in 2021 by former President Joe Biden to serve as director of the bureau that regulates financial agencies. The director of the CFPB, who under law was to serve a five-year term, also serves as a board member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, voting on key banking regulations. Chopra will no longer be serving in that role either.
In his time at the CFPB, Chopra spearheaded controversial regulation limiting overdraft fees banks can charge as well as late fees credit card companies could collect from customers.
The rule intending to cap credit card late fees at $8 was later struck down by a federal judge. The CFPB rule on overdraft fees, which would cap them at $5 — a substantial savings from the $35 that customers are typically charged — was finalized at the end of last year but is likely to face legal challenges, as well.
Under Chopra’s leadership, the CFPB also finalized a rule making personal data more accessible so that it is easier to switch banks. Before Trump took office this month, the agency finalized a rule that would remove about $49 billion in medical bills from credit reports.
“People who get sick shouldn’t have their financial future upended,” said Chopra in a statement on January 7.
The consumer watchdog agency was created after the 2008 financial crisis by way of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The agency was the brainchild of Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who began advocating for it in 2007 when she was a Harvard Law School professor.
Warren, the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, applauded Chopra for “holding Wall Street accountable for cheating hard-working families,” she said Saturday in a statement.
Despite their differences with Trump, Warren and several progressive lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, have signaled their support for the president’s campaign promise to temporarily cap credit interest rates at 10% — less than half of current rates according to Federal Reserve data.
To fulfill this promise, Warren said Trump “needs a strong CFPB and a strong CFPB director,” adding that “if President Trump and Republicans decide to cower to Wall Street billionaires and destroy the agency, they will have a fight on their hands.”
CNN’s Jeanne Shahadi contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional content.