One of the most puzzling not-yet-fired Biden regulators is Rohit Chopra, the hyper-regulatory director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Trump had to contend with a liberal CFPB director for much of his first term when Richard Cordray refused to resign, but ultimately the Supreme Court ruled: “The CFPB Director… must be removable by the President at will.”
So what’s taking Trump so long this time?
Our friends at the WSJ editorial page explained how Chopra’s new lawsuit against Zelle is an object lesson in why he needs to go, ASAP:
We’re told Rohit Chopra is trying to persuade the Trump team to retain him as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Elizabeth Warren would love nothing more as she made clear this week by praising her acolyte’s new and dubious lawsuit against the peer-to-peer payment app Zelle.
The CFPB sued Zelle and its bank owners last month for not doing enough to stop fraud. There’s no doubt consumer scams are multiplying as criminals exploit technology such as artificial intelligence, and law enforcement has struggled to keep up. But Mr. Chopra wants to make banks reimburse swindled customers…
This will encourage more fraud. Customers will be less circumspect if they know banks are on the hook if they get conned. Scam artists could also exploit Mr. Chopra’s diktat by falsely claiming they were conned. Banks could have to reimburse the criminals.
The lawsuit follows a new CFPB rule that requires banks to share customer data with third parties upon a customer’s request. As we reported (“Jamie Dimon vs. Rohit Chopra”), the rule would let scammers initiate payments from customer accounts. Mr. Chopra’s Zelle lawsuit seeks to force banks to reimburse customers for fraud that will result from his own rule.
