Just moments after he was appointed by President Donald Trump to be the new acting director of the Consumer Financial Protections Bureau, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent moved to halt the agency’s work investigating financial abuses and regulating deceptive banking practices impacting American consumers, according to a memo sent to employees and obtained by Scripps News.
Bessent said in the email sent Monday morning that the halt on all agency actions was being implemented “in order to promote consistency with the goals of the Administration.” Employees were instructed to stop the publication of new rules to regulate the financial industry, not to open or continue investigations into financial wrongdoing, not to issue “public communications of any type,” not to execute material agreements nor to make any new filings in pending legal matters.
As of Feb. 3, CFPB had 37 active enforcement actions underway; the last new action was taken days before Trump took office.
Bessent’s note came approximately five minutes after Bessent was announced as the new “acting director” of the agency, though a release from the CFPB said the president had appointed him to the role on Jan. 31.
“I look forward to working with the CFPB to advance President Trump’s agenda to lower costs for the American people and accelerate economic growth,” Bessent said in a statement.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who first proposed the idea for the agency nearly two decades ago and who now serves as the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, decried its halting.
“Shutting down CFPB enforcement actions that are on the verge of delivering money into the pockets of working people is at odds with President Trump’s claim that he wants to lower costs for families,” Warren said in a statement. “Secretary Bessent must reverse course, and if he doesn’t, I will use every tool at my disposal in the Banking Committee to hold him accountable – along with any company that lines its pockets at the expense of American taxpayers.”
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Formed by Congress in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, CFPB has sought to protect American consumers from predatory financial practices – saving Americans roughly $17.5 billion through monetary compensation, principal reductions, canceled debts, and other consumer relief efforts.
During the Biden administration, the agency took an aggressive approach to consumer watchdog efforts. Rohit Chopra, the Senate-confirmed CFPB director appointed by the former president, put forth a number of regulations aimed at curbing predatory lending, reducing medical debt and cutting so-called “junk fees” such as those imposed by banks when consumers overdraft their accounts or miss credit card payments.
Republicans, conversely, have long lambasted the agency as creating bureaucratic red tape and stifling innovation. Last year, Elon Musk – a top Trump advisor who’s leading the Trump administration's efforts to cut government waste – suggested the agency should be “delete[d].”
On Feb. 1, Trump fired Chopra. In a public letter posted on X, Chopra acknowledged his leadership had concluded,” going on to highlight what he described as successes during his term in leadership. But he also issued a tacit warning about growing income inequality and the concentration of wealth surrounding Trump: “With so much power concentrated in the hands of a few, agencies like the CFPB have never been more critical,” he wrote.
Bessent, in his memo to CFPB employees, noted “committed to appropriately stewarding the agency pending new leadership.” A spokesperson for the Treasury Department did not respond to an inquiry about Bessent’s plans for the agency.
