Estimating the Cost of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to Consumers

Key Takeaways

• The regulatory burden imposed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has increased the compliance and liability costs associated with consumer financial products, which financial institutions pass on to consumers in the form of higher prices and reduced product offerings. The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) estimates that since 2011, the CFPB has cost consumers between $237-$369 billion, including fiscal costs, increased borrowing expenses, and reduced originations.
• Of the total above, CEA finds that increased borrowing costs amount to at least $222-$350 billion^[1] ($160-253 per borrower) from the CFPB's inception in 2011 through 2024.
  • Broken down by loan type, the CFPB's rulemaking has cost consumers $116-$183 billion in higher mortgage costs ($1,100-$1,700 per originated loan), $32-$51 billion for auto loans ($91-$143 per loan), and $74-$116 billion for credit cards ($80-$126 per loan). These costs significantly surpass the CFPB's reported $21 billion returned to consumers (about $15 per borrower).
• In 2024 alone, the CEA estimates the combined annual cost of credit for mortgages, autos, and credit cards is between $24-$38 billion.
• CEA also estimates that the higher borrowing costs from CFPB policies significantly reduced loan originations, resulting in an economic efficiency loss of between $1.5-$5.7 billion to consumers.
• The annual paperwork burden alone from CFPB rules exceeds 29 million hours or the equivalent of 14,100 full-time employees spending all of their time on documentation and reporting requirements at a conservative cost of just under $2.5 billion. From 2011 to 2024, the Bureau's paperwork burden costs have cost businesses $21 billion.^[2]
• The CFPB has received $8.9 billion in total transfers from the Federal Reserve between 2011 and 2024 when adjusted for inflation. Since funds transferred to the CFPB would otherwise have been transferred to the US Treasury, the lost revenue results in a marginal excess tax burden (METB) of $4.4 billion. Taken together, the fiscal cost of the CFPB since inception is over $13 billion.

^[1] All values in this analysis are reported in (2025 $) unless otherwise stated.

^[2] Some or all of these compliance costs may be embedded in the form of the higher borrowing costs for consumers estimated above