Philadelphia man among fired CFPB employees worries for consumers if agency

The fallout from the ongoing mass federal layoffs continues, including locally, where many workers are now unemployed. But could the impacts extend to your wallet, too?

Nick Hand is among dozens of workers recently fired from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB is a small agency that was established to police some of the country’s biggest banks and tech companies.

With the agency winding down, Hand worries that if it continues like this, scammers and price gougers will gain a significant advantage.

“Without the CFPB being an active player and watchdog, I think your financial apps, your customer service from banks and student loans will get even worse,” Hand told CBS News Philadelphia. “So I think it could have a huge, huge impact.”

Hand, who lives in Philadelphia, says he’d been working remotely in the bureau’s enforcement arm for about a year and a half. With a background in computer technology, he says he was brought in to help “level the playing field” with companies the CFPB was tasked with regulating.

“How these companies are using data, or how they’re using models, or algorithms or AI to potentially cut costs or harm consumers,” he said.

Congress created the watchdog agency following the 2008 financial crisis and big bank bailouts. Since then, the bureau has been credited with creating rules capping bank overdrafts and late fees, removing medical debt from credit reports and recovering more than $20 billion for consumers who had been defrauded and scammed.

In recent years, the bureau has focused on digital banking and payment apps. A now-terminated CFPB attorney told 60 Minutes that she believes this is why Elon Musk and DOGE are interested in potentially dismantling the agency.

“His company X is moving into the digital payment space, and so he’s potentially able to gain access to files of his competitors like Venmo and Cash App,” Hanna Hickman told 60 Minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl. “He is able to take out the regulator that would have been the watchdog for his company. You know, I guess it’s easier to fire us than it is to beat us in court.”

The White House told 60 Minutes that Musk is not in the inner workings of DOGE operations at the CFPB.

Critics of the agency have said many of its functions are redundant as there are already other financial regulatory agencies. Norbert Michel of the Libertarian Cato Institute has argued that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) can and should take on much of the CFPB’s work.

“Congress created the CFPB by transferring enforcement authority for more than 20 federal consumer protection laws to the new agency. One can disagree with how effective those laws were, but one cannot claim that there was no consumer protection,” Michel has written. 

As the agency’s future remains uncertain, Hand is calling on people to contact their legislators to save it from the chopping block.

“Especially, in a city like Philadelphia where 20% are living in poverty, it’s a majority-minority city, I think what you see when an agency like CFPB goes away is that the people who can’t afford it, the most vulnerable, they bear the brunt,” Hand said.

Signage on the bureau’s headquarters has been removed, even though a federal judge has imposed a temporary restraining order on any further budget cuts or firings. A hearing is set for March 3.

The judge’s order does not cover those already fired, like Hand.

Do you have a money question, a consumer issue, or a scam story you want to share? Email InYourCorner@cbs.com.