Vought, Salas, Halperin, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Stand Down: A Review of WIRED’s Stellar Resignations
Acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Russell Vought has demanded all bureau staffers to halt investigations, enforcement, rulemaking, research, and public statements in two emails sent Saturday and Monday that were reviewed by WIRED. He also forbade CFPB workers from making court appearances, other than to pause or postpone proceedings.
The resignations by supervision head Lorelei Salas and enforcement head Eric Halperin were announced to their respective teams via emails that were shared with NPR by current and former employees of CFPB. The two officials were appointed to their roles three years ago.
“The Bureau has been instructed to stand down. I do not believe it is appropriate, nor lawful, to stop all supervisory activities and examinations, and I cannot longer serve as the Supervision Director,” Salas wrote in her email.
“I don’t believe in these conditions I can effectively serve in my role, which is protecting American consumers,” he wrote. “Since October 2021, we have secured orders for $9.5 Billion in penalties and redress for consumers. It has been an honor to serve with you.”
The CFPB has been closed since Trump’s announcement of the Decrement of the Musk Employees and the Trump-President Executive Order
The CFPB was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and is part of the Federal Reserve system, from which it receives its funding. The bureau and its supervisors are in charge of making sure companies follow consumer protection rules.
The bureau has been a focus of the Trump administration’s attention and ire, and there have been several dramatic moves to stop the agency’s work in recent days.
The employees of the Musk team were given access to the systems last week. The Department of Governmental Efficiency was created through one of Trump’s executive orders.
Vought told staff to stop doing the agency’s work. On Sunday, agency staff were told that CFPB’s Washington headquarters would be closed for the week and that they would not be permitted to enter. On Monday, staff and contractors were told they couldn’t “perform any work tasks.”
“There’s a lot of fraud and abuse targeting people in our country, which is why we have lawsuits against big banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo,” he said.
The CFP Rule and Peer-to-Peer Payments: The Trump Era and Musk’s “Big Tech” Agenda
The rule was passed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and defining this type of peer-to-peer payment company. The first step is to define the companies, since they were not included in the rule. These companies have fallen into a regulatory grey zone.
With Donald Trump coming back in the White House and Musk pushing a broader agenda to slash spending that could ultimately eliminate entire agencies, the outlook for the CFPB looks more and more uncertain. After the members of DOGE gained access to internal data and the bureau’s website began displaying a 404 error message, Musk went on X and posted “CFPB RIP.”
The move put an abrupt halt to several active lawsuits and investigations against companies accused by the CFPB of defrauding consumers, and the drafting of possible regulations that would oversee the activity of Big Tech companies with financial products such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Venmo.
The former staffer, who was granted anonymity due to fears of reprisal, said that the cases were basically on ice at the moment.