Robert Maddox Quoted in Bank Director on Why Banks Shouldn't Assume Regulatory Risk Has Disappeared Despite CFPB Cutbacks
Bank Director
Bradley partner Robert Maddox was quoted in Bank Director, urging banks to remain cautious despite the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s reduced scope. Although the CFPB is operating with fewer resources and a narrower enforcement agenda today, banks should avoid treating the current environment as permanent deregulation.
“It’s not five guys and a fax machine. The reality is the CFPB is not going to get shut down. It is going to be much smaller, but it’s still going to exist,” he said.
Maddox noted that consumers can still bring lawsuits even if the CFPB scales back enforcement.
On fair lending, Maddox said the agency has shifted away from broad statistical theories of discrimination, reflecting the current administration’s preference for evidence of actual consumer harm over portfolio-wide disparate impact analyses.
“They want to see actual harm to a borrower, not the extrapolation across a product or a portfolio.”
Maddox also cautioned banks against assuming today’s regulatory philosophy will endure.
“This is an interpretation by the current agency, the bureau, and it doesn’t mean that if there is a new president on Jan. 20, 2029, that one of the first things they don’t do is bring this right back.”
His message was that future administrations could quickly restore more aggressive enforcement approaches.
The full article, “The Dismantling of Banking’s Consumer Watchdog,” appeared in the third-quarter 2026 issue of Bank Director on July 1, 2026. (login required)
