“What they built became a goldmine for criminals,” making it easy for fraudsters to drain accounts, while providing insufficient protections for consumers or making them whole for losses, CFPB Director Rohit Chopra told journalists in a briefing. “These banks broke the law by running a payments system that made fraud easy, while refusing to help the victims.”

The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said on Friday it filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase JPM.N, Bank of America BAC.N and Wells Fargo WFC.N for failing to protect consumers from alleged “widespread fraud” on payments platform Zelle.

The lawsuit was initiated as the watchdog moves ahead with a bold agenda in the final weeks of Joe Biden’s Democratic administration in a bid to advance consumer protections before President-elect Donald Trump overhauls the agency, Reuters reported last month. The moves defy congressional Republicans, who have called for agencies to cease rulemaking.