SAN FRANCISCO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom will appoint Rohit Chopra, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to lead a new state agency focused on consumer protections and business regulation.
Chopra was ousted from the federal bureau soon after President Donald Trump returned to office last year. The bureau had been criticized by Republicans, who portrayed it as an unaccountable regulator, and Chopra often clashed with the nation’s banks and technology giants by taking on everything from “junk fees” to Big Tech’s role in consumer payments.
Newsom, a Democrat and likely presidential candidate who has clashed repeatedly with Trump, cast Chopra’s impending appointment as the next step in California’s effort to strengthen consumer safeguards in the wake of the Trump administration dismantling much of the CFPB.
“As the Trump administration turns its back on consumers, we need strong and fearless leaders to keep protecting Californians,” Newsom said in a statement shared first with POLITICO. “Rohit Chopra has shown exactly that kind of leadership — taking bold action, standing up for working families, and enforcing real consumer protections.”
Chopra, a former member of the Federal Trade Commission and protege of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, would be the first secretary of California’s new Business and Consumer Services Agency, which launches on July 1. Newsom announced the agency last summer, as part of a reorganization that split the state Business Consumer Services and Housing Agency into two different entities.
“While federal agencies are making life more expensive and enriching special interests, California will be firing on all cylinders to make sure markets aren’t rigged against families and small businesses,” Chopra said in a statement.
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