FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 5, 2025
CONTACT: Carter Dougherty, carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org
Over 100 Organizations Urge Senators to Oppose Musk-Fueled Rollback
of CFPB Digital Payment Oversight
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, over 110 community, civil rights, privacy, consumer, labor, technology, small business, and other organizations delivered a letter urging the U.S. Senate to oppose a resolution to rescind the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) digital payment app oversight rule.
“The Senate should reject this colossal giveaway to Big Tech that literally enriches Elon Musk and rewards him and his assault on the CFPB, federal workers, and democracy itself,” said Patrick Woodall, managing director for policy at Americans for Financial Reform. “There are few clearer examples of how Musk’s ravaging of federal institutions benefits a super-rich person at the expense of everyday consumers, who will face greater ripoffs and fraud.”
The letter can be found here.
Officially known as a “larger participant rule,” the measure would provide for CFPB oversight of Big Tech payment apps and digital wallets to protect users from fraud, privacy erosion, and deactivation of their accounts. The Senate is voting on a plan to roll it back under the Congressional Review Act.
“The rule does not adopt any new requirements; it simply makes sure that these large payment companies get the same oversight banks have to ensure that they comply with consumer financial protection laws and avoid risky practices,” the letter states. “The CRA resolution would allow these Big Tech companies to evade the statutory protections that people deserve to be free from fraud, abuse, deception, or personal data harvesting”.
The Senate vote is the first congressional vote since the Trump administration and Musk began their effort to destroy the CFPB. And it represents a substantial conflict of interest for Elon Musk, whose X social media platform has recently launched an X-money payment app that would be subject to the rule.
“The Big Tech companies want to be exempt from oversight. Elon Musk’s DOGE attack on the CFPB — and on the payment act user protection rule in particular — will benefit Musk’s personal financial interests as his social media platform X has launched its own payment app X-Money that the platform plans to expand to a one-stop everything financial app,” the letter states. “Voting for this Congressional Review Act resolution prevents Musk’s X Money from receiving the same oversight banks get to ensure that they comply with the law.”
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