FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 14, 2025

CONTACT:
Carter Dougherty
carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org

Administration CFPB Staff Cuts Promote Lawless Behavior by Financial Firms

Washington, D.C.– The new staff purges at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will allow Wall Street, predatory lenders, and many other financial companies to rip off their own customers without any recourse to an agency that has won $21 billion in relief for consumers in its 14-year history.

In the last two days, Acting CFPB Director Russell Vought has stepped up the pace of efforts to dismantle the agency, by taking steps such as illegal mass purges, in particular of technology specialists who are crucial to CFPB work. He has also hacked away at the efficacy of the complaint system, something Congress required CFPB to create, by eliminating a toll-free number that consumers used to seek assistance.

“Vought’s actions at CFPB will only empower Wall Street and predatory financial companies that can now rip people off with greater impunity,” said Christine Chen Zinner, consumer policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform. “This lawless staff purge is deregulation pure and simple that can only lead to greater fraud against consumers.”

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