Overview
- A CFPB memo published late May said headquarters staff must return to the office five days a week in July and that roughly 450 employees from former regional offices will be required to report to a new Washington location by Aug. 31.
- The agency will pay relocation costs for eligible workers and will begin move orders in June while using a different downtown building for the new headquarters after canceling the prior D.C. lease.
- The bureau has already lost about one-third of its roughly 1,700-person workforce since the administration announced plans to curtail the agency, and officials expect the relocation to prompt more resignations.
- Closing regional offices in San Francisco, New York, Chicago and Atlanta removes local teams that monitored Wall Street, fintech and regional lenders and could slow the CFPB’s response to emerging consumer risks.
- The moves follow efforts by acting director Russell Vought and the White House to reduce the agency’s size, and they come while courts consider challenges to the administration’s plans to cut staff further.