CFPB Drops Capital One Lawsuit in Major Enforcement Reversal

On February 27, 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, under acting director Russell Vought, dropped its lawsuit against Capital One along with four other pending enforcement cases. The Capital One suit had alleged the bank failed to pay more than $2 billion in interest to customers by marketing its 360 Savings account as high-yield while quietly creating a nearly identical account paying substantially more.

The dismissal marked a sharp reversal from the CFPB's posture under the Biden administration and fit a broader pattern of the agency scaling back or halting enforcement actions against financial institutions. Consumer advocacy groups, including the Consumer Federation of America, criticized the move as abandoning billions in potential relief for affected depositors.

The reversal was consistent with the administration's stated goal of curbing or eliminating the CFPB's enforcement reach. In a related development, New York's attorney general later filed a state lawsuit against Capital One over similar allegations after the federal case was dropped.