The Democratic Attorneys General Association announced that they hired former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra to lead its new Consumer Protection and Affordability Working Group. The working group has several goals, including harmonizing enforcement strategies across several states, evaluating artificial intelligence risk as it relates to consumer protection, and other initiatives. Chopra is charged with providing advisory support and policy recommendations to Attorneys General relating to consumer financial protection. Chopra’s appointment to the Working Group follows a straight line from one of the last significant efforts of his tenure as CFPB Director, when he released Strengthening State-Level Consumer Protections, a report widely seen as a roadmap to state Attorneys General enforcing federal consumer financial protection laws and regulations. 

The announcement comes on the heels of a shifting regulatory dynamic in Washington, DC, as federal regulators emphasize safety and soundness in their supervision. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Federal Reserve Board have all signaled in recent weeks and months that they intend to focus their supervision primarily on “material financial risks.” Additionally, these agencies have proposed tightening the definition of Matters Requiring Attention through the promulgation of a formal definition in the Federal Register. The CFPB, meanwhile, has been largely on the sidelines throughout the calendar year and is facing an uncertain 2026. Currently embroiled in a lawsuit with the National Treasury Employees Union regarding attempted reductions-in-force, the CFPB is currently set to run out of funds following a Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Legal Counsel opinion regarding the CFPB’s funding structure. Additionally, the CFPB has transferred all its existing litigation to the DOJ.

Here are some key takeaways from the Chopra announcement:

• Ramp-up for state enforcement?
  • Selecting Chopra to provide policy advice may signal the intent for more aggressive enforcement of consumer protection laws and regulations by states with Democratic governors or attorneys general. While state enforcement has not significantly increased in 2025, this move by the Consumer Protection and Affordability Working Group suggests that certain states are ramping up their efforts to enforce consumer protection laws and regulations.. 
• Trickle-down “enforcement” – the plaintiffs bar
  • Class action lawsuits brought by advocacy groups or the plaintiffs bar continue to be material legal and compliance risks for financial institutions. With Chopra actively advising state governments on enforcement, private rights of action may increase commensurate with attention paid by state regulators and law enforcement.
• A new frontier – navigating state law and federal preemption
  • While federal preemption has existed for decades, a new spotlight is being shone on it in light of public discourse surrounding increases in state enforcement. Short of an Act of Congress better defining federal preemption of state consumer protection laws (which is unlikely), lawsuits and legal interpretations will continue to forge the path. National banks cannot solely rely on federal preemption as a default defense  for assertions of noncompliance with state laws. Chopra’s tenure as CFPB Director often included controversial interpretations of standing law or regulation (e.g., discrimination as a UDAAP, commonly assessed fees being labeled as “junk fees,” etc.), so it is reasonable to assume  that challenges to federal preemption standards could be on the horizon to the extent that the working group seeks to enforce state law against national banks.

About the author

Ryan Labriola is a Senior Manager with Asurity Advisors. Ryan has expertise in military lending laws and regulations, including the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and the Military Lending Act. He has advised financial institutions and non-bank lenders on SCRA and MLA compliance, and has participated in significant lookback and remediation engagements relating to servicemembers’ benefits and protections under federal and state law.