The Trump administration has intensified its effort to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, arguing the agency has raised borrowing costs for Americans by hundreds of billions of dollars, according to a report from the Financial Times.

A study prepared by the White House Council of Economic Advisers found that regulations imposed by the CFPB have led to higher prices, reduced product offerings, and increased borrowing costs.

The Times reported the estimated cost to consumers is between $237 billion and $369 billion.

"The CFPB has been conscripted to advance a radical agenda that achieves precisely the opposite outcomes of what its leftist champions claim," Russell Vought, the agency's acting director, told the Times.

"[It] has prevented Americans from accessing credit and made life dramatically more unaffordable."

Vought has said he wants to "close down" the agency, which was created after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers.

The report comes as the administration has moved to limit the CFPB's operations, though court rulings have ordered the government to keep the agency running while litigation continues.

Democrats have pushed back strongly.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who helped design the CFPB, and other Senate Banking Committee Democrats said in a separate report this month that efforts to weaken the bureau had cost consumers up to $19 billion by allowing them to get "scammed ... by big banks and giant corporations."

The CFPB says it has returned almost $20 billion to consumers since 2011 and collected $5 billion in fines.

Agency data also shows it received at least half a million consumer complaints about financial companies over the past year.

Republicans in Congress, conservative legal scholars, trade groups, and libertarian organizations have argued the bureau imposes excessive regulatory burdens that restrict access to credit.

The White House report sought to support that argument by comparing regulated mortgage loans with those outside CFPB rules.

"We find that borrowers of these regulated loans paid on average 4.3 percent more in interest (or 16 basis points) compared to borrowers not subject to CFPB regulations," the report said.

Across mortgages, car loans, and credit cards, the report said the CFPB increased consumer borrowing costs by between $222 billion and $350 billion from 2011 through 2024.

The agency's work has been slowed sharply under the Trump administration, which has placed staff on leave and dismissed dozens of enforcement actions.

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