Kate Berry has covered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for American Banker since 2016. She joined the publication in 2006 covering mortgage lending and the financial crisis. Berry also has covered big banks including Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo. She has won five awards from the Society of American Business Writers and Editors, and has worked at several news organizations including the Orange County Register, the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Associated Press. Berry began her career as a clerk at the New York Times.
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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is overhauling its consumer complaint portal after receiving 6.6 million complaints last year, more than double the 3.2 million in 2024, citing abuse by credit repair firms and social media influencers.
June 25 -
Life insurers have offloaded long-term policyholder liabilities into offshore reinsurance and captive subsidiaries, raising concerns over state oversight of opaque investment vehicles and whether insurers have adequately funded claims.
June 22 -
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals halted the Trump administration's attempt to fire nearly two-thirds of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's workforce, upholding a March 2025 injunction.
June 21 -
Federal prosecutors arrested and charged Mahender Makhijani, 44, with orchestrating a $100 million bank fraud against Western Alliance Bancorp.
June 11 -
The White House has nominated Brian Johnson, the former CFPB deputy and a veteran Capitol Hill staffer, to permanently lead the bureau.
June 10 -
AB - Policy & RegulationAll 11 Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee are backing a bill that would restore and lock in funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
June 5 -
New York borrowers want the Supreme Court to rehear a case requiring banks to pay interest on mortgage escrow accounts, due to a split among appellate courts.
June 3 -
An audit by the Office of Inspector General concluded that information security programs at both the Federal Reserve Board and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are no longer effective due to critical vulnerabilities.
June 1 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is ending remote work and ordering its entire staff to report to a new Washington, D.C., headquarters five days a week.
May 28 -
Housing advocates and compliance firms are suing to block a rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that they say guts the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
May 27 -
House lawmakers modified a ban on big-money investors from purchasing single-family homes, broadening the exemptions for build-to-rent properties and eliminating requirements in a Senate version of the bill that affected investors divest their holdings.
May 14 -
The Federal Housing Administration put an end to pandemic-era relief last year, triggering a 28% jump in foreclosures on FHA loans in the first quarter and an expected spike in defaults ahead.
May 13 -
The Treasury Department held a high-stakes huddle with state insurance officials to discuss risks associated with the rapid growth of private credit in the economy and whether those investments could pose systemic vulnerabilities.
May 7 -
Life insurers' borrowings from the Federal Home Loan banks has increased in recent years, raising concerns about opaque, private credit investments and how it intersects with the Federal Home Loan banks' housing mission.
May 7 -
A federal judge harshly criticized the settlement of a civil suit between the Department of Justice and a Texas land developer.
April 30 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has finalized changes to Regulation B, which implements the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, to eliminate any liability for indirect discrimination by lenders. The change represents a major shift in how the agency polices lending discrimination.
April 22 -
Banks are pushing back on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's draft of a five-year strategic plan, which includes a notable pullback from supervising nonbanks.
April 20 -
A federal judge refused to sign a settlement agreement between the Department of Justice and Houston developer Colony Ridge because it failed to provide any consumer relief. DOJ agreed to an out-of-court settlement instead.
April 14 -
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has dismissed scores of enforcement attorneys early in President Donald Trump's second term, is staffing up its litigation arm in anticipation of defending its rules in court.
April 13 -
Jay Plum, head of consumer lending at Fifth Third Bank, says artificial intelligence is fundamentally shifting relationships between banks and their third-party software vendors, allowing banks to do things on their own that they would previously rely on vendors to do for them, like identify risky loans and prepare for exams.
April 9
