U.S. consumers are on the verge of losing the right to sue their banks and credit card companies through class-action lawsuits.

Vice President Mike Pence broke a 50-50 Senate tie Tuesday night, narrowly approving the repeal of the rule that blocked financial companies from requiring consumers to resolve disputes via individual arbitration proceedings.

The Senate vote followed earlier House approval and now goes to President Trump for expected signing. The action hands Wall Street and the financial industry a victory while dealing a defeat to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal watchdog that approved the rule in July.

The bureau is headed by Richard Cordray, an Obama administration appointee who has been targeted for removal by some congressional Republicans. Created as a new safeguard after the national financial crisis, the watchdog agency had moved to ban most mandatory arbitration clauses found in the fine print of agreements that consumers typically agree to automatically and often unwittingly when they open a checking account or get a credit card.

The congressional action not only sets the stage for overturning the consumer rule, it effectively would bar the watchdog from ever issuing a similar regulation.

"It preserves a two-tiered justice system where banks can have their day in court but deny their customers the same right," Cordray said in a statement issued as he urged Trump to veto the measure. "As a result, companies like Wells Fargo and Equifax remain free to break the law without fear of legal blowback from their customers."

The final vote broke down largely along party lines. The Senate action required Pence's tie-breaking vote because two Republicans joined Democratic lawmakers to keep the rule in place — Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John Kennedy of Louisiana.

Other Republicans and the financial industry hailed the action as a reversal that would block big paydays for lawyers who file class-action lawsuits and enable consumers to continue resolving financial disputes individually through arbitration.

They contended that the arbitration system has worked “wonderfully” for consumers, and said payouts for average customers in arbitration cases are generally larger than awards won through class-action lawsuits.

"Arbitration results in better and quicker outcomes for consumers, so we applaud both houses of Congress for taking action to pull back a rule that would have benefited the class-action trial bar at the expense of American consumers and businesses alike," Thomas Donohue, the CEO and president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement.

Consumer advocates, joined by congressional Democrats, however, called the action an undeserved gift to Wall Street. They invoked the massive cyberbreach at credit-rating giant Equifax and the scandal over authorized accounts at banking giant Wells Fargo as examples of failings that justified class-action legal challenges by consumers suing en masse.

More:CFPB: Financial firms can no longer force consumers to use arbitration in group disputes

The vote "means that big financial companies can lock the courthouse doors and prevent consumers who've been mistreated from joining together to seek the relief they deserve under the law," said George Slover, senior policy counsel for Consumer's Union, the policy division of Consumer Reports. "Forced arbitration unfairly tips the scales in favor of banks, credit card companies, and other financial firms at the expense of consumers who've been harmed by widespread corporate wrongdoing."

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kevin McCoy on Twitter: @kmccoynyc

Contributing: Associated Press