The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has reportedly curtailed the activities of a federal agency that regulates financial services companies. 

Bloomberg reported the development today, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The agency that has drawn DOGE’s attention is the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB. It was set up in 2011 to protect consumers from unfair practices by financial service providers. CFPB regulates banks with more than $10 billion in assets under management, as well as certain other market players such as payment processors. CFPB has reportedly returned more than $20 billion to consumers since launching.

Bloomberg reported that DOGE “effectively shut down” CFPB over the weekend. The agency’s Washington, D.C. headquarters is closed and its website’s homepage displays an error message, although other pages remain available.

DOGE’s scrutiny began last Thursday, when four staffers from the Elon Musk-led organization arrived at CFPB’s headquarters. Initially, they received read-only access to a limited number of systems, which means they could view the data inside them but not change it. The systems in question reportedly contained personnel records, information about the agency’s budget and procurement-related documents.

Shortly thereafter, the DOGE staffers were given access to CFPB’s remaining systems along with the ability to modify the data inside. The systems on the list reportedly include applications that store information about “bank examination and enforcement records.” CFPB can collect data about financial institutions’ business operations as part of regulatory probes.

On Friday evening, CFPB employees received an email from Russell Vought, the agency’s newly appointed acting director. Vought instructed staffers to halt “all supervision and examination activity” and “all stakeholder engagement.” Furthermore, he announced his intention to decline new federal funding for the agency.

The development comes days after Musk’s X teamed up with Visa Inc. to launch a digital wallet called X Payments. The service will enable users of the social network to receive payments and transfer funds to their bank accounts. According to Bloomberg, X Payments could fall under the CFPB’s oversight as a result of regulatory changes that rolled out in November.

DOGE’s activities have drawn a quick response from the National Treasury Employees Union, which represents CFPB employees. The union filed two lawsuits against Vought in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. One complaint focuses on DOGE’s access to CFPB data, while the other challenges Vought’s decision to decline new funding for the agency.

Previously, a judge blocked DOGE staffers’ access to sensitive data in U.S. Treasury Department systems. DOGE is reportedly using artificial intelligence to analyze financial records across a large number of federal agencies. At the U.S. General Services Administration, which manages procurement for the government, DOGE is reportedly working to develop a custom chatbot with which it hopes to streamline document analysis tasks.

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