The crackdown sent the number of debt-collection suits filed in New York City plummeting, from 300,000 in 2008 to fewer than 47,000 eight years later. But now they are making a comeback as the Trump administration rolls back financial regulations of all kinds. Last year the number of debt-collection suits in the five boroughs jumped by 61%, to nearly 76,000, according to figures from the New York State Unified Court System.

Data for this year is not available, but if the scene on the 11th floor of the Civil Courthouse in Downtown Brooklyn is any gauge, this year should see a bumper crop. On a recent Monday morning, the pews were filled with about 40 alleged debtors waiting to plead their case before the judge. Some left the room after being approached by attorneys for debt collectors, asking if they would strike a last-minute settlement. According to the state, 98% of defendants in these cases do not have a lawyer, so Sidney Cherubin, director of legal services at the Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyer Project, shows up four days a week with a small team to help them.

"Sometimes the judge will call me over after telling the defendant, 'Maybe you should talk to an attorney before you agree to settle,'" Cherubin said.

One explanation for the surge in cases is that consumers—perhaps inspired by the strong economy—are taking on record amounts of debt through credit-card, car and other loans, totaling $13.2 trillion, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Invariably some people bite off more than they can comfortably chew.

"There's an industry saying: 'You sue the won't pays, not the can't pays,'" said Jan Stieger, executive director of the Receivables Management Association, a trade group for debt collectors.

But the defanging of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, whose creation was a key part of 2010's Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, has likely emboldened collectors. President Donald Trump has called the agency a "total disaster" and its acting director, Mick Mulvaney, earlier this year asked for a quarterly budget of zero dollars while warning staffers to do their jobs with "humility" and not to "push the envelope." One example of the change in approach: On July 13 the bureau, which had originally sought $60 million in restitution and debt forgiveness from a Kansas collection firm, instead fined it just $800,000. The agency would not comment.

"The bureau continues to be much more of a balanced regulator, balancing the needs of industries and consumers," Encore Capital Chief Executive Ashish Masih said in a May conference call, according to a transcript on financial analysis website Seeking Alpha. In 2016 the CFPB began a process to regulate debt collectors on a national basis, but experts say that project is now on the back burner.

Debt collectors aren't the only ones enjoying a regulation rollback. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were on the brink of failing their annual stress tests in the spring, which would have limited their stock buybacks and dividend payouts, until Federal Reserve officials instructed them how to get a passing grade. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission last year ordered 80% fewer fines and penalties than in 2015. The business of packaging subprime mortgages or other consumer loans and selling them to investors—a hallmark of the last decade's housing bubble—is picking up again.

Maria Vullo, superintendent of the state Department of Financial Services, noted that for the first time since the financial crisis, Wall Street professionals are feeling bold enough to cook up deals that test the boundaries of what's legal.

"People are trying to skirt regulations by structuring things in a certain way," she said. "It's happening again. We are back."

Vullo said she and her staff of 1,400 are doing their best to fill the void left by federal regulators. "I must protect New Yorkers because the CFPB is not going to do it," she said. "Unfortunately I can't do it for the rest of the country."