CFPB pullback signals further shift toward industry-friendly regulation
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continues to unravel amid pressure from Trump administration officials to shutter the agency. Not only has the agency informed its employees that it will no longer be a watchdog for the financial services industry, it has also laid off employees despite court orders blocking the agency’s closure.
A memo from Mark Paoletta, the chief legal officer for the CFPB, said the agency will reduce its investigations into financial services companies while increasing its focus on ”pressing threats to consumers, particularly service members and their families and veterans,” according to an Apr. 16 report from Reuters. Then, the next day, the CFPB told employees it planned layoffs of between 1,500 and 1,700 people, as reported by the New York Times.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered back in March that employees laid off across more than a dozen federal agencies, including the CFPB, in February were to be allowed to return to work. She ordered a hearing for Friday morning to determine if the bureau violated her ruling.
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