The regulator on Friday (Nov. 21) announced its “Humility in Supervisions Pledge,” outlining its enforcement priorities for 2026.
The pledge was flagged in a report by Reuters, which noted this marks a shift: Rather than the Trump administration trying to shutter the agency, it will instead continue its enforcement efforts, though on a limited basis.
According to the announcement, the pledge is designed for examiners to read to a financial institution before an examination begins, promising that the upcoming examination cycle will be “fundamentally different” than the ones under former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra.
The pledge reads in part that the bureau will “focus its supervision resources on pressing threats to consumers, particularly service members and their families, and veterans, and in the areas that are clearly within the bureau’s statutory authority.”
“The bureau will also avoid, where possible, duplication of supervision, where states or other regulators are already doing that job,” the pledge adds.
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In addition, examination times will shrink from eight weeks to a time “commensurate with the defined scope of exams,” with examiners “encouraged and incentivized to complete the work promptly and under budget,” the pledge said.
As the Reuters report pointed out, the agency releasing plans for the new year indicates a possible shift after months of wrangling over whether the CFPB would even continue to exist.
Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management Budget, had said in October that the bureau would be shut down within a matter of months.
Vought restated long-standing Republican criticisms that the regulator has overstepped its authority and unfairly targeted small financial institutions.
“All they want to do is weaponize the tools of financial laws against basically small mom-and-pop lenders and other small financial institutions,” he said.
Defenders of the watchdog say it has returned billions of dollars to consumers and played a critical role in curbing deceptive financial practices.
In other CFPB news, the chairman and vice chairman of the House Financial Services Committee called on the agency earlier this month to protect consumer choice and financial data privacy as it writes new rules for open banking.
“We are in the era of consumer financial data portability, and we do not want to see an upending of the existing ecosystem to the detriment of consumers and innovation,” wrote Reps. French Hill of Arkansas and Bill Huizenga of Michigan.
