CFPB Report to Congress Details Sweeping Changes to Enforcement, Supervision and Consumer Complaints

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has released its latest semi-annual report to Congress, documenting substantial changes to federal consumer financial oversight, including the closure of more than 1,300 supervisory actions, a reduction in examinations and a revised approach to enforcement.

The 83-page report, published Oct. 27, 2026, primarily covers activities from January through June 2026, although several sections examine developments dating back to July 2025.

CFPB Closes 86% of Outstanding Supervisory Actions

One of the report’s most significant findings concerns the CFPB’s restructuring of its supervision program.

Between July 2025 and June 2026, the Bureau closed 1,327 of the 1,552 supervisory actions that were open at the beginning of that period, approximately 86%.

According to the CFPB, the closures involved matters where institutions had sufficiently addressed identified concerns or where previous supervisory findings no longer aligned with the agency’s priorities.

The Bureau also reviewed 80 open examinations, closing 66 and continuing 14 that aligned with its revised supervisory approach.

Additionally, the CFPB reported:

• A roughly 50% reduction in scheduled examinations.
• Greater emphasis on depository institutions rather than nonbank financial companies.
• More narrowly defined examination scopes and smaller examination teams.
• Reduced duplication of oversight already performed by state or other federal regulators.

The agency adopted a new “Humility in Supervision Pledge,” which emphasizes clearly defined examination objectives, advance notice, collaboration with supervised institutions, and timely resolution of compliance concerns.

Debt Collection and Credit Reporting Remain Enforcement Priorities

Despite the reduction in supervisory activity, the CFPB identified several areas where federal enforcement remains a priority.

These include violations of the FDCPA and Regulation F involving consumer contracts and debts, as well as Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Regulation V violations involving data furnishing.

Other priorities include fraudulent fees, mortgage-related violations, inadequate safeguards that result in actual consumer losses, and protections for service members, veterans, and their families.

The Bureau reported closing approximately 40% of its pending investigations during the reporting period to align its enforcement inventory with these priorities.

Its public enforcement summary, covering July 2025 through June 2026, identifies nine resolved actions, 16 terminated pending orders, one newly initiated action, and five matters in pending litigation as of June 30.

Among the continuing cases is the CFPB’s lawsuit against United Debt Holding, JTM Capital Management and related defendants. The Bureau alleges that the companies purchased defaulted consumer debts and used third-party collection agents who engaged in unlawful collection practices.

The report also identifies ongoing litigation involving Experian over alleged credit reporting violations and Strategic Financial Solutions over alleged unlawful debt relief practices.

These cases demonstrate that debt collection, debt relief, and credit reporting remain within the CFPB’s enforcement scope, even as the agency adopts a more targeted approach.

Consumer Complaint System Receives Major Changes

The report also documents changes to the CFPB’s consumer complaint system.

Between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026, the Bureau received approximately 8.27 million consumer complaints and forwarded approximately 7.5 million to companies for review and response.

Companies responded to approximately 99.6% of complaints sent to them during the reporting period.

The CFPB implemented several modifications intended to improve complaint quality and consistency.

In February 2026, the Bureau added a notice requiring consumers submitting credit reporting complaints to attest that they first disputed the matter directly with a consumer reporting agency and that 45 days had elapsed or the dispute was no longer pending.

Other changes included updated company response guidance, two-factor authentication for online accounts, additional identification requirements for third-party complaint submitters and an application programming interface pilot for company responses.

The Bureau also announced that it would stop publishing unverified complaint narratives and associated visualizations.

The CFPB maintains that these changes will improve the reliability of complaint information and reduce the potential for misleading public representations of unresolved consumer allegations.

For collection agencies, debt buyers and other financial services providers, the changes may affect complaint intake, verification and response procedures.

New Enforcement Principles Emphasize Identifiable Consumer Harm

The CFPB’s revised enforcement framework prioritizes cases involving actual, measurable consumer harm rather than hypothetical or speculative injury.

The Bureau outlined four central principles: addressing actual consumer harm, ensuring due process, encouraging voluntary remediation, and avoiding duplicative enforcement.

Under this approach, the CFPB intends to resolve certain compliance problems through cooperation with financial institutions instead of pursuing public enforcement actions.

The report cites an example involving Bilt, where the Bureau worked directly with the company to secure more than $250,000 in consumer redress for more than 2,000 consumers affected by a bank partnership transition.

The Bureau also reported terminating 16 pending enforcement orders during the July 2025 through June 2026 period, explaining that most involved companies had already satisfied their financial obligations and had remaining administrative requirements.

Fair Lending Rules and Regulatory Priorities Shift

The CFPB’s semi-annual report also highlights changes to federal fair lending regulations.

In April 2026, the agency finalized amendments to Regulation B under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, removing the longstanding effects test and stating that the statute does not authorize disparate impact liability.

A separate May 2026 rule narrowed certain requirements under the Dodd-Frank Act’s Section 1071 small-business lending data collection framework and extended its compliance date to January 1, 2028.

The CFPB also identified unlawful debanking, mortgage lending and servicing regulations, and reconsideration of consumer financial data access requirements as priorities.

These changes reflect the Bureau’s stated intention to concentrate regulatory activity on clearly established statutory obligations and particular categories of consumer harm.