


The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dropped a slew of Joe Biden-era lawsuits against lenders as the nominee to lead the agency pledged to “right size” the watchdog under President Donald Trump.
The CFPB dismissed cases against Capital One Financial Corp., a unit of Rocket Cos. and a lender owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., according to separate court filings Thursday. They’re the latest enforcement actions pulled by the Trump administration, which has swiftly disabled the CFPB by suspending its oversight, closing its Washington headquarters and firing its director as well as many other employees.
Trump’s pick to be the next CFPB director, Jonathan McKernan, faced the U.S. Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. He told lawmakers the agency had little accountability to Congress and the president, which he’d like to change.
“It’s very important that we instate some accountability,” he said. “We need to right-size it.”
Capital One came under fire from the CFPB in January, before the new administration took over, when it alleged the lender misled customers when it rolled out a new savings account with a higher interest rate it didn’t also give to existing savings accounts.
A Capital One spokesperson said it welcomed the CFPB’s decision to dismiss the action, which it had “strongly disputed.”
Capital One introduced the 360 Performance Savings Account in 2019, with an interest rate that eventually rose to 4.25%, according to the CFPB’s complaint at the time. That was far higher than the 0.3% offered on the bank’s existing savings account product, called 360 Savings. The CFPB alleged that the bank promised existing customers one of the U.S.’ “top,” “best” and “highest” interest rates through their 360 Savings account.
Rocket loans
In December, the CFPB sued Rocket Homes to stop what it called an illegal kickback scheme where the firm provided incentives to real estate brokers and agents in exchange for steering homebuyers to Rocket Mortgage for loans. It has now dropped that case, too, according to the filing.
“This case was a misrepresentation of the facts, as we have said from the day the suit was filed,” a spokesperson for Rocket said in an emailed statement. “Rocket Homes has always connected buyers with top-performing agents based only on objective criteria like how well they helped homebuyers achieve their dream of homeownership.”
The CFPB also pulled its lawsuit against Berkshire-owned Vanderbilt Mortgage & Finance Inc., which it sued in early January. The agency had alleged Vanderbilt issued “unaffordable” home mortgages by ignoring the insufficient income or assets of some borrowers.
A representative for Vanderbilt didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The CFPB’s dismantling was aided by the DOGE efficiency initiative led by billionaire Elon Musk. DOGE, established by Trump to slash federal spending, has moved to shut down operations at several other agencies as well.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the architects of the agency and the ranking Democrat on the Banking Committee, criticized the timing of the dropped lawsuits.