Mass layoffs struck the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

The Trump administration sent opinions for dismissal on Thursday to a large band of employees to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, just days after a Federal Court of Appeal reduced an injunction which had prevented the agency’s managers from carrying out plans to dismiss almost all the workers from the office.

The complete extent of the cuts was not immediately clear, but at the end of the afternoon, hundreds of workers from all the main divisions of the agency had received any advice on reduction of force. Licensed employees have been informed that they would lose access to their email accounts and agency work systems on Friday evening.

A legal file Thursday evening by the staff union of the consumer office estimated that layoffs could reach up to 1,500 of the 1,700 office employees. “Whole offices, including those mandated by law, will have or will soon be eliminated or reduced to one person,” the union said in his file before the Washington Federal District Court.

The representatives of the Consumer Bureau did not respond to a request for comments.

The office, which was created by Congress in 2011, monitors banks and other lenders. Since its creation, the supervisory agency has rendered $ 21 billion to defraud consumers by reimbursements and a cancellation of debt, according to government figures.

On Wednesday, Mark Paoletta, the agency’s legal director, sent a memo note of any new priorities. The office will considerably reduce its application and compliance review work, and will “deprive” the surveillance of student loans, medical debt, digital payments and peer loans, he wrote.

Russell T. Vought, the head of the White House budget office, who is also the acting director of the consumer office, froze almost all the agency’s activities and sought to eliminate almost all of his staff.