Updated February 07, 2025 at 23:48 PM ET
Representatives of Elon Musk's cost-cutting team have entered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and gained access to internal computer systems that manage the agency's human resources, procurement, and finance systems, according to a source familiar with the group's actions who was not authorized to speak publicly. They have also taken control of the bureau's social media accounts, locking out career staff.
As of Friday night, CFPB's home page was showing an error message.
In recent weeks, Musk has been hammering the CFPB, the watchdog agency that oversees consumer finance. In late November, he wrote on his site X: "Delete CFPB." On Friday, Musk posted: "CFPB RIP," though it is not clear there have been any reductions or changes to the agency's staff yet.
Three Musk deputies who are part of the effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE — Chris Young, Nikhil Rajpal and Gavin Kliger — were added to CFPB's internal staff directory on Friday, according to the union representing CFPB workers, NTEU 335.
In a statement, the CFPB union said Musk's lieutenants entering the agency was "a clear attempt to attack union workers and defang the only agency that checks the greed of payment providers, as well as auto lenders like Tesla." Musk is CEO of Tesla and runs five other companies.
The union later updated its statement, noting that the bureau collects and maintains vast amounts of sensitive information about individuals and businesses, including banks and other financial institutions, and expressing concern that "such legally-protected, sensitive data of businesses and individuals will be exposed and used in inappropriate ways."
DOGE's actions inside the bureau, which were first reported by WIRED, are stirring fears that Musk could try to virtually dismantle the agency, as he aims to do at the Education Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The gutting of USAID was temporarily paused by a federal judge on Friday.
The CFPB and a representative for DOGE did not return requests for comment.
Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was confirmed as CFPB's acting director following the firing of former head Rohit Chopra.
When Bessent took over earlier this week, staff members were told to stop all of the agency's work "unless expressly approved by the Acting Director or required by law," according to an internal email shared with NPR. The email instructed CFPB staff not to launch or settle any enforcement actions.
The CFPB has long been a punching bag among Republicans, the banking sector, and some in Silicon Valley for its investigations, enforcement actions and fines in consumer protection cases.
Wells Fargo agreed, in 2022, to a $3.7 billion settlement with the CFPB for allegedly taking advantage of customers on their auto and mortgage loans. CFPB fined Equifax $15 million over errors tied to millions of peoples' consumer credit reports. And last year, the agency sued Capital One claiming the bank misled customers by not paying them the savings account interest rate it was advertising.
The bureau ordered Apple and Goldman Sachs to pay $89 million in penalties for mishandling consumers' disputed transactions.
Since its creation in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the bureau has returned more than $17 billion to consumers it determined had been wronged by financial firms.
Whether Facebook and Instagram owner Meta misused financial data obtained from third parties has come under the microscope of the CFPB.
The agency also proposed new rules to oversee digital payment platforms, which would include Apple Pay and Google Pay. Musk's X is working with Visa to launch its own "X Money" payment system, according to the company, which would place the platform's financial services under the CFPB's oversight.
In Trump's first term, his acting director Mick Mulvaney called the agency a "sick sad joke," and drafted legislation to abolish it.
Since Trump took office for the second time, his billionaire supporters in the tech world have been ramping up calls for CFPB to be eliminated. Prominent venture capitalist Marc Andreessen blamed the bureau for "terrorizing financial institutions." Andreessen is a Trump backer who is helping to advise Musk's efforts in using DOGE to reshape the federal government.
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