President Trump on Monday named Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, replacing former Director Rohit Chopra, who was fired by the president over the weekend.

“I look forward to working with the CFPB to advance President Trump’s agenda to lower costs for the American people and accelerate economic growth,” Mr. Bessent said in a statement.

Mr. Trump has suggested the CFPB, a longtime nemesis for conservatives, could be brought under Treasury oversight.

Mr. Chopra was ousted as part of the president’s firing spree to purge the federal government of Biden-era holdovers.

Mr. Chopra posted a letter on social media Sunday announcing his departure, prematurely ending a term scheduled to expire in late 2026.

“This letter confirms that my term as CFPB Director has concluded. I know that the CFPB is ready to work with you and the next confirmed director, and we have a great deal of energy to ensure continued success,” he wrote.

One of the more aggressive regulators from the Biden administration, Mr. Chopra was widely expected to get fired once Mr. Trump took office. Somehow, he managed to hang on for nearly two weeks even as Mr. Trump showed other Biden holdovers the exit door.

In the two weeks since Mr. Trump was sworn in, Mr. Chopra issued a flurry of regulations and other activities such as imposing a $2 million fine on a money transmitter for advertising inaccurate fees, releasing reports on auto lending costs and specialty credit reporting companies.

“With so much power concentrated in the hands of a few, agencies like the CFPB have never been more critical,” Mr. Chopra wrote in his letter. “I’m proud that the CFPB has done so much to restore the rule of law.”

In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have the power to fire the agency’s director without cause in response to a lawsuit filed over Mr. Trump’s decision to fire a CFPB director during his first term.

President Biden appointed Mr. Chopra in 2021 to serve a five-year term as director of the bureau, which regulates financial agencies and imposes bank regulations. He quickly became an aggressive regulator, spearheading several controversial regulations, including limiting the overdraft fees banks charge as well as the late fees credit card companies collect from customers. The late fee ruling was later struck down by a federal judge while the overdraft fee decision is still winding through the courts. During the final days of the Biden administration, the CFPB finalized a rule that would remove medical debt from credit reports, another controversial decision.

The CFPB was created after the 2008 financial crisis through the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and the Consumer Protection Act. It was the brainchild of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, who had begun advocating for it in 2007 when she was a Harvard Law School professor.

Republicans have long criticized the CFPB, arguing it has too much power and independence from Congress. They have accused the agency of imposing overbearing regulations and fining businesses, hurting the nation’s economic independence.

• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.