By Douglas Gillison and Tim Reid
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency created to serve as a watchdog for American consumers against predatory business practices, said on Thursday it planned to dismiss as much as 90% of its remaining workforce, resuming mass firings less than a week after a federal court ruling granted the Trump administration leeway in setting staff levels.
Multiple agency sources said staff members had begun receiving formal notices on Thursday afternoon. A CFPB spokesperson confirmed the agency was moving to fire roughly 1,500 people across core divisions, including enforcement and supervision, leaving only 200 staff. Fox Business had earlier reported those numbers.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The workforce action comes in the middle of legal action brought by an employee union and consumer advocates working to prevent what they said was the agency’s illegal destruction.
According to one official notice seen by Reuters, the agency said the recipient’s dismissal would take effect in 60 days but that access to internal email systems and IT systems would be cut off on Friday evening.
President Donald Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk called earlier this year for the CFPB’s elimination, accusing it of politicized enforcement, and lawsuits challenging the administration’s efforts warned the goal was to shut the agency down entirely.
However, administration officials subsequently said the CFPB would continue to exist in some form, noting that Trump has nominated a new director.
Created after the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB is the sole federal agency with power to enforce consumer financial laws at nonbank institutions such as mortgage originators and payment services. The agency, long criticized by conservatives, has been facing an onslaught of firings and changes under President Donald Trump.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who championed the creation of the CFPB, earlier this year said no one other than Congress could dismantle the agency and criticized Republican attempts to weaken the agency that has paid financial restitution to thousands of Americans.
“Donald Trump ran his campaign on lowering costs for working families, she said. “Now he and his co-president, Elon Musk, have tried to shut down the agency that has delivered $21 billion to hardworking families.”
An appeals court last week ruled that the Trump administration could begin laying off workers but not eradicate the agency altogether. Specifically, that court said agency leaders could begin layoffs for employees determined not to be necessary to fulfill the agency’s legally required work after a “particularized assessment.”
The ruling partially reversed a decision handed down by a district court that ordered the administration to halt efforts to fire workers, scrap contracts and close offices.
(Additional reporting and writing by Pete Schroeder; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
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