Some employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau were fired after a court ruling that cleared the path to layoffs. Here, CFPB members and supporters will meet outside the CFPB headquarters in Washington, DC last month.
Alex Wong/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
Hide captions
Toggle caption
Alex Wong/Getty Images/Getty Images North America
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees have begun receiving layoff notifications. This is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to scale back the bureau and reduce the scope of its work.
“This RIF action is necessary to restructure the department’s operations to better reflect the agency’s priorities and mission,” read one of the notifications seen by NPR and see Force Reduction Measures.
————
Laurel Wamsley covers what’s going on with the CFPB. If you have any hints, you can get a good contact with her at Laurel’s signal.
————
Staff began receiving Force reduction notifications on Thursday afternoons. It was not immediately known how many employees at the agency had received the notification.
Reduction of force notifications will come later Recent Court Judgments The federal appeals panel has cleared the path to layoffs. The three-person review board said the department’s leaders could send a compulsory notification reduction to employees who have determined they would not need to carry out CFPB’s legal duties.
Otherwise, the panel left an injunction from another federal judge that prevented the agency from being demolished, including that it was unable to delete or destroy that data and that it had to give employees the tools to work in a workspace or remotely.
The CFPB did not respond to NPR questions about whether the layoffs had begun.
New directions for CFPB
The layoffs come after the department’s top lawyer sent a note to CFPB employees on Wednesday evening.
In a memo viewed by NPR, Chief Justice Marc Paletta argued that if the department relies on the state to carry out more enforcement and supervisory activities, doing so could “focus on tangible harm to consumers.”
Paoletta also said the bureau will return its focus to depository institutions such as banks, credit unions and commercial banks.
He added that the bureau will “deprive” many areas of regulation in recent years, including medical debt, peer-to-peer platforms and digital payments.
It’s worth noting that the last item is Elon Musk, who tweeted “CFPB RIP,” will build a digital payments platform. This is an ostensibly platform under CFPB monitoring. In February, Musk’s Government Efficiency (DOGE) team entered the department’s Washington headquarters to manage the main systems.
Founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB is a target for the Trump administration, Silicon Valley and Wall Street, and says it is flooded with regulations.
The consumer organization criticised the bureau’s redirection, as stated in Paoletta’s memo, and said it had marked a significant cut in its mission.
“The CFPB cannot simply avoid the responsibility of Congress’ consumer protection liability and expect a state to enforce federal law,” said Lauren Sanders, associate director of the National Center for Consumer Law.
