CFPB Director Chopra Testifies Before Senate Banking, House Financial Services Committees

This week, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra testified before both the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the House Financial Services Committee, where he fended off attacks while urging lawmakers to adopt better protections against the use and collection of consumers’ data against payment processing and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services. 

According to Reuters, Chopra cited media reports that said that companies like PayPal and JPMorgan Chase & Co planned to allow the usage of customer payments data for targeted advertising. “These plans to monetize sensitive financial transaction data are a reminder that the United States is slowly lurching toward more financial surveillance and even financial censorship,” he said.

Trish Wexler, a JPMorgan Chase representative, said that Chopra was mistaken and that no personal information is shared in developing discount offers and coupons. However, Chopra expressed concern that companies offering BNPL could be using consumer data in similar ways. But those companies are now treated as credit card providers and must issue refunds and investigate disputed charges. 

Chopra also denied assertions that the CFPB is illegally drawing funds from the Federal Reserve, which is currently operating at a loss. These assertions came soon after the Supreme Court ruled against arguments that the funding of the CFPB was unconstitutional. “I can tell you we’ve looked at this issue. We do believe wholeheartedly everyone is complying with the statute,” Chopra said .

Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, released a statement saying that the “Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the CFPB is a victory for hard-working families in Ohio, for military families managing their finances, for students trying to pay back their loans, and for older Americans trying to guard against financial predators.”

But on the other side of the aisle, Banking Committee Ranking Member Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) criticized the CFPB for its role in President Biden’s “junk fees” campaign. “We realize this administration’s actions simply shift who saves and who pays. It is well past time we end this ‘junk fees’ narrative and focus on the junk philosophy behind them,” Scott said.