CFPB To Retain Limited Oversight In 2026 Despite Earlier Dismantling Plan

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Friday it will maintain limited supervisory activities in 2026, revising Acting Director Russell Vought’s earlier plan to dismantle the agency.

The bureau, scaled back under the Trump administration, will keep a small regulatory presence rather than halt examinations. Under the new approach, examiners will read a “humility pledge” to financial institutions, outlining how reviews will be narrow and brief. The CFPB, created after the 2008 financial crisis, has been largely inactive during the second Trump administration and is involved in a legal dispute over whether most of its staff can be dismissed. A memo in April informed employees that supervision work would be reduced by half, with focus shifting to risks affecting military personnel and families instead of student loans, medical debt, and consumer data.