Finance

Senators grill Trump CFPB pick, Jonathan McKernan: ‘Good luck’

Published

2 months ago

February 27, 2025

Jonathan McKernan, U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, sits on the day he testifies during a Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 27, 2025.

Annabelle Gordon | Reuters

President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Thursday withstood grilling from Democrat senators who repeatedly asked him to confirm that he would uphold his legal obligations to run the agency.

Pressed by senators including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Jonathan McKernan, a former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation board member, told lawmakers he would “fully and faithfully” enforce laws related to the CFPB’s mission.

“My legal career started just as the 2008 financial crisis was beginning,” McKernan said. “Watching that crisis unfold left me with an enduring conviction that we must have a financial regulatory system that works for everyday Americans. Consumer protection is critical to that end.”

Still, McKernan made it clear that he disagreed with how predecessor Rohit Chopra ran the agency. In opening remarks, he said that the CFPB “acted in a politicized manner,” exceeded its legal authority, hurt consumers by inadvertently raising prices and suffered from a “crisis of legitimacy.”

“This must be corrected if the CFPB is to reliably do what it’s supposed to do: look out for the American consumer,” said McKernan, a former corporate banking lawyer and Senate aide.

Since acting CFPB Director Russell Vought took over this month, the agency has shuttered its Washington headquarters, fired about 200 employees and told those who remain to stop nearly all work. Those moves, along with an allegation from a CFPB union that Vought intends to fire more than 95% of the agency’s staff, has spurred fears that the agency faces extinction.

Earlier Thursday, the CFPB dismissed at least four enforcement lawsuits, including actions against Capital One and a Berkshire Hathaway unit.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) speaks at a rally outside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Feb. 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images

Warren pressed McKernan on if he would uphold CFPB’s statutory requirements, including having a website and toll-free line for consumer complaints, as well as maintaining advocacy offices for military veterans and senior citizens.

“Each of the offices I think you mentioned is mandated by statute,” McKernan said. “Yes, I’ll follow the law.”

Rattling off a list of public comments and steps made by the Trump administration that indicate the bureau could be shuttered entirely, Warren questioned how effective McKernan could be.

“It kind of feels like you’ve been lined up to be the No. 1 horse at the glue factory,” Warren said.

For his part, McKernan said that if confirmed by the Senate, he would “right-size” the CFPB, as well as “refocus it” and “make it accountable.”

Sen. Jack Reed, D.-R.I., followed up, adding that Vought has canceled the lease on the agency’s headquarters and dismissed cases against “predatory lenders.” Reed also mentioned reporting that both Trump and Vought, who is also head of the Office of Management and Budget, want to eliminate the bureau.

“You’re going to be placed in a very difficult position,” Reed said. “You do not appear to have much presidential support or OMB support, and I have this sinking feeling that you’re departing Liverpool on the Titanic. Good luck.”

McKernan didn’t verbally respond to Reed’s comment, only smiling ruefully while nodding slightly.

Really worried CFPB scale down will be unfair for many, says former CFPB director Rohit Chopra

Finance

More Americans buy groceries with buy now, pay later loans

Published

4 hours ago

April 26, 2025

Business Finance News

People shop for produce at a Walmart in Rosemead, California, on April 11, 2025.

Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Images

A growing number of Americans are using buy now, pay later loans to buy groceries, and more people are paying those bills late, according to new Lending Tree data released Friday.

The figures are the latest indicator that some consumers are cracking under the pressure of an uncertain economy and are having trouble affording essentials such as groceries as they contend with persistent inflation, high interest rates and concerns around tariffs.

In a survey conducted April 2-3 of 2,000 U.S. consumers ages 18 to 79, around half reported having used buy now, pay later services. Of those consumers, 25% of respondents said they were using BNPL loans to buy groceries, up from 14% in 2024 and 21% in 2023, the firm said.

Meanwhile, 41% of respondents said they made a late payment on a BNPL loan in the past year, up from 34% in the year prior, the survey found.

Lending Tree’s chief consumer finance analyst, Matt Schulz, said that of those respondents who said they paid a BNPL bill late, most said it was by no more than a week or so.

“A lot of people are struggling and looking for ways to extend their budget,” Schulz said. “Inflation is still a problem. Interest rates are still really high. There’s a lot of uncertainty around tariffs and other economic issues, and it’s all going to add up to a lot of people looking for ways to extend their budget however they can.”

“For an awful lot of people, that’s going to mean leaning on buy now, pay later loans, for better or for worse,” he said.

He stopped short of calling the results a recession indicator but said conditions are expected to decline further before they get better.

“I do think it’s going to get worse, at least in the short term,” said Schulz. “I don’t know that there’s a whole lot of reason to expect these numbers to get better in the near term.”

The loans, which allow consumers to split up purchases into several smaller payments, are a popular alternative to credit cards because they often don’t charge interest. But consumers can see high fees if they pay late, and they can run into problems if they stack up multiple loans. In Lending Tree’s survey, 60% of BNPL users said they’ve had multiple loans at once, with nearly a fourth saying they have held three or more at once.

“It’s just really important for people to be cautious when they use these things, because even though they can be a really good interest-free tool to help you kind of make it from one paycheck to the next, there’s also a lot of risk in mismanaging it,” said Schulz. “So people should tread lightly.”

Lending Tree’s findings come after Billboard revealed that about 60% of general admission Coachella attendees funded their concert tickets with buy now, pay later loans, sparking a debate on the state of the economy and how consumers are using debt to keep up their lifestyles. A recent announcement from DoorDash that it would begin accepting BNPL financing from Klarna for food deliveries led to widespread mockery and jokes that Americans were struggling so much that they were now being forced to finance cheeseburgers and burritos.

Over the last few years, consumers have held up relatively well, even in the face of persistent inflation and high interest rates, because the job market was strong and wage growth had kept up with inflation — at least for some workers.

Earlier this year, however, large companies including Walmart and Delta Airlines began warning that the dynamic had begun to shift and they were seeing cracks in demand, which was leading to worse-than-expected sales forecasts.