Unlock stock picks and a broker-level newsfeed that powers Wall Street. Upgrade Now
CFPB Drops Biden Lawsuits Against Capital One, Rocket Unit

In This Article:

(Bloomberg) -- The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dropped a slew of Biden-era lawsuits against lenders as the nominee to lead the agency pledged to “right size” the watchdog under President Trump.

Most Read from Bloomberg

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 US Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. He told lawmakers that 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 last month, 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 US’s “top,” “best” and “highest” interest rates through their 360 Savings account.

Rocket Lawsuit

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.”