Reports: CFPB Laying Off 90% of Staff

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is reportedly in the process of laying off 1,500 employees, which will reduce the agency’s staff to 200.

This reduction-in-force (RIF) effort began Thursday (April 17) and was still going on late in the day, Politico reported Thursday, citing an unnamed source.

The CFPB did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

According to the Politico report, CFPB Director Russ Vought wrote in a notice to the affected employees that the cuts are “necessary to restructure the Bureau’s operations to better reflect the agency’s priorities and mission.”

It was reported Wednesday (April 16) that the CFPB is scaling back enforcement of financial services companies and instead will focus on threats to members of the military and their families.

The House Committee on Financial Services Republicans account wrote in a Thursday post on X: “The Committee applauds Acting Director Vought’s reprioritization of the CFPB’s enforcement priorities. This is a welcomed change from the Biden Administration’s aggressive regulation by enforcement approach.

Reuters also reported Thursday that the CFPB is firing 1,500 people and leaving only 200, adding that a CFPB spokesperson confirmed those numbers.

The affected employees will be officially dismissed in 60 days but will lose their access to the agency’s email systems and IT systems Friday night, the Reuters report said, citing an official notice from the CFPB.

National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement issued Thursday that the union is investigating the full extent of the RIF after learning Thursday that RIF notices have been issued to “many employees” at the CFPB.

“Late last Friday, April 11, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order that required the agency to make a ‘particularized assessment’ with respect to employees if it was going to carry out a reduction in force,” Greenwald said in the statement. “For the CFPB to issue RIF notices — in which we are already identifying mistakes — to a large group of employees less than four business days from the D.C. Circuit order’s issuance indicates that CFPB has likely not made the required particularized assessments.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, issued a statement Thursday in response to reporting that Vought sent RIF notices to “almost all” CFPB staff.

“Dismantling the CFPB in the face of a court order blocking an illegal shutdown is yet another assault on consumers and our democracy by this lawless Administration, and we will fight back with everything we’ve got,” Warren said in the statement.