Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, released this statement in response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dropping at least nine pending enforcement cases, including one lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America for alleged payment scams on the app, Zelle, in violation of consumer financial laws, and another lawsuit against Capital One for allegedly cheating millions of consumers out of interest payments.

“The Trump Administration is giving our nation’s biggest banks a blank check to rip off working-class families. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau previously found that J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America allowed fraud and scams to proliferate via their payment app, Zelle, resulting in more than 910,000 consumers losing over $870 million to fraud. When these victims sought out justice, the banks and Zelle threw their hands up and shrugged off responsibility—a flagrant violation of our nation’s consumer protection laws. That’s why, last year, the CFPB made the right decision to sue these banks and hold them accountable for their misdeeds. By dismissing this lawsuit with ‘prejudice,’ the Administration is permanently dropping this case and preventing the Consumer Bureau from ever bringing this case back to court. This means the victims of the case will likely never get their money back and this problem will certainly grow worse.

“Unfortunately, since taking office, the Administration has shamelessly turned its back on millions of victims of abuse and illegal activity by financial institutions. Just last week, the Consumer Bureau dropped its suit against Capital One with prejudice, following deceptive and illegal actions that allegedly swindled customers out of more than $2 billion in interest payments. Meanwhile, Capital One is still seeking a merger with Discover. It would be grossly misguided to believe that allowing Capital One to merge with Discover and become the sixth largest commercial bank would do anything other than exacerbate these same abusive practices and put more consumers in harm’s way.

“By dropping lawsuit after lawsuit, halting enforcement actions, and stopping supervision of our nation’s largest banks, the Trump Administration is abandoning the millions of military families, servicemembers, student loan borrowers, and hard-working American families who used to be able to count on the CFPB to fight for them. While Trump promised to bring down costs, he and Elon Musk are instead fighting to protect the interests of their billionaire CEO buddies and donors, and in turn, ensure people pay more for financial services.

“At the same time, Trump is partnering with Congressional Republicans to kill several important CFPB rules, including one that would allow CFPB to supervise the largest big tech payment apps, like the kind Elon Musk plans to launch soon, and another rule that generally limits overdraft fees — that currently drain billions of dollars from the pockets of American families every year — to $5.. Time and time again, this Administration proves their goal is not to bring down costs for families, but instead empty their pockets to enrich their billionaire friends. Democrats will fight this at every step.”

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