Overview
In late May, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) under Trump-appointee and acting director Russell Vought launched a newly redesigned website that deprioritized consumer complaints and reframed the CFPB as a deregulatory agency rather than the nation’s only financial watchdog focused on protecting consumers in the market. As part of this overhaul, the Trump-Vought CFPB deleted the agency’s blog and removed all press releases prior to February 2025.
The CFPB website was a one-stop clearinghouse of vital information and guidance for consumers, the media, other federal and state regulators, and regulated firms. In total, approximately 3,800 articles ranging from press releases, consumer advisories, congressional testimony, letters to state regulators, blogs, speeches, and more were deleted from the CFPB website, in an attempt to erase 15 years of agency information and consumer-facing education materials.
Much of this content is no longer available or is now effectively inaccessible for the public, the media, or other federal and state regulators. In many cases, the CFPB website was the primary host of this information. When deleted content does exist in other places, there are substantial barriers to its continued availability. Many other government and non-government websites where it might appear can be difficult to search or navigate and would require specific information about what, where, and when that content might have been posted. The CFPB’s former catalogue of consumer-facing content is less likely to turn up in relevant searches. Even when content is archived, links from other government documents are broken and in many cases, search and other functionality is not available through these archives.
How deleted information impacts the media, consumers, industry, and Congress
Removing this information hides key agency actions and the views of prior leadership from the public and the media. It makes it harder for people to find objective information about the risks of certain financial products and what protections are available. Removing this information also hides market-moving research and important compliance information from industry and makes it harder for Congress to conduct oversight.
This summarizes the deleted content, the key audiences for much of this now removed information, and where that information may be located on other official government websites.1
Critical information now inaccessible to the media
- Press releases that provided plain language summaries of major announcements: The CFPB deleted 1,427 identified press releases spanning all prior administrations that are generally unavailable in other places. Press releases represent the public record of official announcements that often include plain language summaries of major regulations, enforcement actions, personnel changes, organizational and administrative updates, coordination with other agencies, or major research reports.
- Staff level announcements and updates on major CFPB organizational milestones: The CFPB deleted 380 identified updates on CFPB blog covering its activities, organizational milestones, personnel changes, announcements from the CFPB’s required advisory boards, and descriptions of public engagement priorities that help identify the Bureau’s priorities and strategies to fulfill the CFPB’s mission. This content is generally not available in other places.
Help for people to navigate financial challenges has been eliminated
- Consumer education materials that helped people evaluate financial products: The CFPB deleted 827 identified blog and newsroom articles that are generally unavailable elsewhere. These plain language explainers provided people with critical actionable information to navigate the use and risks of various financial products, recover from emergencies and national disasters, avoid common or emerging scams, and get help with other issues. The CFPB had been the one-stop-shop for this type of consumer information that has now been eliminated.
- Public speeches and op-eds that shaped the understanding of the CFPB’s goals: The CFPB deleted 455 identified speeches and 31 op-eds by Bureau leadership that are either unavailable or effectively inaccessible. The remarks made by the CFPB director and senior staff at major academic conferences, industry events, trade association meetings, public events with state and local officials, and meetings with nonprofit organizations inform the public, advocates, the media, regulated firms, and financial markets about the CFPB’s priorities and emphasis.
Research and policy materials that informed advocates, media, and industry has been removed
- Data, research, and reports that informed prior CFPB actions: The CFPB deleted 208 identified plain language summaries of major research reports, complaint analyses, and other publications from the research section of the CFPB website. If these articles contained research findings that were not published as part of a larger report, that information is generally not available elsewhere. The original market analyses, findings from the Research Advisory Council, and other research updates were also removed. This information provided essential insights into emerging consumer financial protection issues or read-outs from advisory council meetings set up by the CFPB to inform its priorities. Where these plain language summaries refer to a published report, the underlying report generally continues to be available in the CFPB’s reports section, but if these articles contained research findings that were not incorporated into a larger report, that information is generally not available elsewhere.
- Policy and compliance materials for media and industry: The CFPB deleted 172 identified policy and compliance articles from the agency’s blog. These plain language summaries of supervisory examination procedures, regulatory explainers, announcements of compliance guides, and updates on major policy initiatives. In many cases, the referenced examination guide or other official document is available elsewhere on the CFPB website, but the plain language summaries and explainers are no longer available.
Deleted information for Congress, other regulators and the public
- Testimony to Congress and comments to other regulators on emerging financial problems and the agency’s work: The CFPB deleted 81 articles that included agency congressional testimony from all prior administrations (including the first Trump administration) as well as 13 regulatory comment submissions to other federal agencies, state legislatures, and state regulators. These include testimony provided as part of the CFPB’s required semi-annual reports to Congress and other testimony related to the CFPB’s policy priorities and operations. In some cases, prior testimony may be available on the committee websites, however, not all testimony from congressional sessions remains available and even more recent hearings are often difficult to find. Testimony is also generally available in the Congressional Record, but that would require some knowledge of when the testimony was given. CFPB regulatory comments may be available in the administrative dockets of the federal or state agency, or as part of the official proceedings of the state legislature, but that may vary by state and issue and would require specific knowledge of where and when CFPB submitted comments.
- Statements from the director on major regulatory developments: The CFPB deleted 80 identified statements and 38 blog articles by directors prior to the current administration. These statements include those in their capacity as a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, joint statements made with other agencies, as part of press teleconferences for major CFPB announcements, and some legislative testimony classified as a director’s statement. These statements provide invaluable information on the CFPB’s regulatory and oversight goals and direction. These statements now are largely inaccessible, they are deleted from the CFPB site and many of the other agency statements, such as statements on FDIC policy, redirect to the CFPB newsroom, where they have been deleted. An additional 38 similar identified articles were deleted from the blog.
What this means for the future of the CFPB
The deletion of public facing information is another major step in the Trump-Vought CFPB’s plan to dismantle the CFPB. The elimination of critical consumer information in accessible language even makes it harder for people to protect themselves from abuse now that the administration has given a green light to law-breaking, junk fees, scams, and unfairness. Deleting the 15-year record of agency communications makes it harder for the public to understand the mission, history, and accomplishments. While the current CFPB leadership has spent much of their time in office rolling back key consumer protections, unwinding enforcement actions, curtailing its financial supervision activities, the elimination of consumer facing information will have a similarly significant and lasting impact.
1. Following the mass deletion, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund assessed the scope of the deleted web content by scraping all blog articles and newsroom posts available on the CFPB newsroom archive and blog archive. Duplicate entries were removed, and different archive instances were reviewed for completeness. Content was aggregated by type of content or audience tag provided as part of the original content post. This analysis found that 3,795 pages of web content was deleted. In addition to the categories described here, another 83 identified untagged articles were also deleted from the blog and are generally not available in other places, including some materials translated into languages other than English.