In November, Donald Trump overwhelmingly carried the Native American vote. By January, just six days before Trump took office, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published a regulation that tribal leaders say isn’t legal and would harm the growing financial services industry on Indian lands. 

At least four tribes are asking for the rule to be withdrawn, calling it an intrusion on tribal sovereignty and noting that tribes were never consulted. The latter point seemingly conflicted with President Joe Biden’s November 2022 pledge to bolster tribal consultations. 

As online lending has grown as a tribal industry, in some cases, tribes have established their own financial regulatory agencies to police the businesses. 

On Jan. 13, the CFPB published a proposed rule prohibiting financial institutions from including provisions in contracts in which customers could “waive substantive consumer legal rights” under federal and state laws to sue. Currently, a company and customer can mutually consent to a contract based on the laws of a specific state or country.