As reported by Bloomberg, the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA) has hired Rohit Chopra, former Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau), to lead a new Consumer Protection and Affordability Working Group within DAGA’s policy arm. The move was announced as a coordinated, state-led response to rising living costs and widespread fraud, with a policy agenda that spans financial services, technology, and health care.

Bloomberg’s reporting states that Chopra will oversee a team of researchers and policymakers charged with drafting nationwide strategies that state AGs can implement. Sean Rankin, president of DAGA, cast the working group as an engine to produce actionable recommendations that AGs could deploy quickly in their states. Chopra’s remarks frame the effort in stark terms: with fewer federal checks on predatory practices, state AGs increasingly find themselves serving as the “line of defense,” and in practice functioning as key regulators across multiple sectors. That perspective aligns with Chopra’s tenure at the CFPB, where he became known for pursuing aggressive enforcement theories, and pushing expansive readings of consumer protection mandates.

Chopra’s appointment also builds on a blueprint he helped craft for state enforcement of consumer financial protection laws. Shortly before departing the CFPB in January 2025, the Bureau released “Strengthening State-Level Consumer Protections,” a roadmap designed to empower state attorneys general and private plaintiffs to pursue consumer financial protection actions even as federal priorities shifted (see previous blog here). Among other recommendations, the CFPB urged states to adopt Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA)-style bans on “abusive” practices, expand AG investigatory powers, enhance consumer remedies, lower evidentiary hurdles for private rights of action, curb “junk fees,” and strengthen data and privacy rights. The Bureau also published a compendium of guidance documents (circulars, bulletins, advisory opinions, interpretive rules) in support of this effort (many of which have now been withdrawn).

According to Bloomberg, the working group’s agenda includes financial services, technology, and health care, with affordability as a central theme. In practical terms, we believe that translates into scrutiny of fee practices and disclosures, subscription pricing and renewals, servicing behavior around hardship and dispute resolution, merchant-financed sales and complaint handling, medical billing and debt collection, and algorithmic decisioning that could impact the cost or availability of credit.

Our Take

We believe that this development underscores and reinforces the commitment of state attorneys general to vigorously pursue enforcement in the consumer finance industry. Mr. Chopra’s working group may end up providing meaningful support to state AGs’ offices in the form of research and recommendations, and may therefore increase the level of enforcement activity that we see. Equally important, however, this position enables Mr. Chopra to stay visible and engaged on consumer protections and position himself for a role in a future Democratic presidential administration.