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Well, consumers under pressure may soon get some relief thanks to yesterday's interest rate cut from the Fed. The cut is expected to ease the cost of borrowing money for everyday Americans in the months ahead. With more, I'm joined by Rohit Chopra, who is the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Great to have you here. I mean, you just got to take us inside of the walls of the CFPB. What was going on? Were you guys a stir as we were in the newsroom here when we heard the 50 basis point cut?

Well, we know that consumers since 2022 have been paying billions and billions of dollars in more interest on credit cards, auto loans and mortgages. And just like your last segment for many of them refinancing is going to be a way that they can really cut their costs. We're pretty laser focused on making sure that consumers and household actually benefit from this rather than just um the wealthiest and the most powerful in the society getting the fruits of this rate cut. We really do think there's big opportunities here. We're going to be taking some actions to look at how to streamline the refinancing process, making it quicker, so more borrowers can benefit. And of course, we're going to continue our serious focus on the role of junk fees that can block successful refinancing and make households deeper in debt.

You know, we're going to get to those junk fees in a hot second because we all have a bone to pick with that. But when you talk about the differences that households should see here, what are the areas where households would begin to see the earliest difference now that the Fed has started its rate cutting cycle?

Well, typically, uh large financial institutions are are quick to hike rates when the when the Fed raises its target, but are often pretty slow when it comes to bringing those rates down. Our analysis of the big credit card issuers showed they jacked up interest rates way higher than the Fed raised their rates, even when you can control for other factors. I really worry that in the very short term, people are just going to see lower rates on their deposits and it's going to take some real work to make sure they have savings on their credit cards, mortgages and their auto loans. Of course, as you know, Brad, for the tens of millions of people with student loans, people taking out student loans right now for college, much of those are fixed rates. They're not going to see any benefits. So the answer to your question is really going to vary based on who and what product, but we're firing on all cylinders to find ways that more and more people can benefit.

You know, it's so interesting because you talk about some of the fees from banks, whether it be overdraft fees or or account specific fees as well. I wanted to ask you about consumers getting hit specifically with overdraft fees that they never agreed to. How is the CFPB taking action there?

Well, overdraft fees used to be something that was really occasional, um and a convenience for the paper check era when you used to put a paper check in the mail. And maybe there was some timing difference based on when you deposited your paycheck and when your your bills were getting cash, but over time it turned into a multi-billion dollar bonanza for the nation's biggest banks. And we have found many instances, including by the likes of Wells Fargo of serious overdraft problems, including hitting people with three or four overdraft fees when the consumer would reasonably expect one. Our efforts have already wiped away billions of dollars of what I consider unearned profits and we're taking further steps to make sure that one consumers are actually opting into this. We issued some policies this week to make it clear, you can't just opt some consumer into this without meaningfully getting their consent and having evidence for that. We've also proposed some new rules to make it easier for consumers to compare an overdraft loan with a credit card or other type of loan because in many cases it is way cheaper to use other forms of credit to meet a shortfall. So there's big reforms happening when it comes to junk fees. Our work has brought down tens of billions of dollars across products, credit cards, bank accounts and more, and we've got even more to do.

With that in mind, what are some reasonable timelines that consumers should be keeping tabs on these efforts from the CFPB going towards and looking at some of the practices of banks? And how do you also kind of assess where there are some perhaps some people out there that have looked at the fees that are assessed by banks and said, you know what, if if that's what they're going to charge me for overdraft, then maybe I'd lean into that knowing when my bridge is going to come, you know, there's kind of the both sides, I guess, that you have to account for at the CFPB.

Well, I don't know. I think what we really want is competition. We want to see banks and others compete for people's business. And here's what's happening in the market, say on overdraft fees. We're seeing more and more banks offering grace periods, more of them advancing your paycheck for free um a day or two before it officially hits direct deposit. That's kind of the market that's really competing on the merits, not setting up a scheme on the back end to reorder your payments to make that $3 coffee cost you $43. So we see big benefits especially for those neighborhoods and cities where lots of people are living paycheck to paycheck. But you know, Brad, when it comes to fees, I really want to go back to what we talked about earlier and in your last segment about refinancing. You know, a lot of people missed out on previous refinancing cycles and some of it is because the huge closing costs that people face. There are a lot of junk fees in that mortgage closing process and that means that it can block people from getting those refinancing savings. We're looking at all sorts of fees, credit report and score fees, title insurance and more. If we can really make sure that closing is simpler and cheaper, we're going to see a lot more mortgages get refinanced as rates go down.

Rohit, thank you so much for taking the time here with us today. Rohit Chopra, who is the director of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Thanks so much for hopping on Yahoo Finance with us.

Thanks so much.