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President Donald Trump’s administration has shuttered the headquarters of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and ordered the watchdog agency to stop nearly all of its work. On Saturday, CFPB chief Russell Vought sent the directive to the agency’s staff, the Associated Press reported.
In the notification, Vought ordered agency employees to stop working on proposed rules, to suspend effective dates of rules that were finalized, and to stop investigative work, according to the AP’s report.
The move comes in the wake of the recent firing of CFPB director Rohit Chopra, who had been with the bureau since 2021. Vought became acting director of the agency last week.
“The CFPB has been a woke & weaponized agency against disfavored industries and individuals for a long time. This must end,” Vought posted on X Sunday, the day after he directed the bureau to stop work.
As of Monday morning, the CFPB’s website displays a “404: Page not found” message on its homepage. However, at the time of this writing, links to its other internal pages, including its About us, Careers, Industry Whistleblowers and CFPB Ombudsman, are still up.
The CFPB first began operating in 2011 as an independent government agency responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. It was created under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a federal law enacted to promote U.S. financial stability after the multi-year financial crisis that started in 2007.
The agency served as a consumer watchdog by accepting consumer complaints, providing educational materials and enforcing laws that prohibit discrimination in consumer finance. It supervised entities such as banks, credit unions, lenders, debt collectors and credit reporting agencies. “We protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices and take action against companies that break the law,” the CFPB website reads.
Since its inception, the CFPB has issued fines against various traditional and online-only banks, credit unions and other entities. Notable rulings include:
The CFPB employed more than 1,600 people in 2023, according to its reports.
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