- Elon Musk's DOGE wants to "delete" an agency that could have directly regulated one of his businesses. Think-tank leaders are raising the alarm about a potential conflict of interest.
The latest U.S. agency in DOGE's cost-cutting sights may have directly intersected with Elon Musk's business interests.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector, has been the latest victim of the Trump administration's war on the federal bureaucracy.
Over the past few days, the agency's headquarters has been closed, employees have been ordered to stop working, and dozens of probationary employees have been fired, according to the union representing CFPB employees.
The dismantling of the government agency follows a similar pattern to the systematic shuttering of USAID, which was also supported by Musk's DOGE team.
However, unlike USAID, the CFPB may have information that directly overlaps with Musk's business interests.
Musk's X is moving into digital payments
Created after the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB has regulated both conventional financial institutions and major tech companies, including Apple and Google, as they venture into digital financial services.
Late last month, Musk-owned X announced it was officially entering the digital payments sector—a move that could have met with scrutiny from the CFPB.
The new service, called XMoney, will allow users to transfer money to bank accounts and perform peer-to-peer payments.
The agency has the power to police privacy issues, fraud, and disputed transactions in mobile payment apps like Apple Pay and Google Wallet under broader powers granted last year to supervise "Big Tech and other widely used digital payment apps handling over 50 million transactions annually."
"Part of this is about clearing the way for Musk to move as quickly as possible, as expeditiously as possible, to spin up his payment app," Lindsay Owens, consumer advocate and executive director of the economic think tank Groundwork Collaborative, told Fortune.
Adam Rust, the director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America, also told the Washington Post that the CFPB would likely be looking into the activities of X, which “may be something Musk doesn’t like.”
Owens has also been raising the alarm about the type of data DOGE may have gained access to, including information stored by CFPB related to ongoing supervision, investigation, and enforcement actions.
At least four young staffers gained access to a trove of data, including sensitive bank examination and enforcement records, according to a report from Bloomberg.
"This is where the real conflicts of interest would lie. Because this would be a documentation of things including trade secrets," she said. "There may be companies who are under investigation or under supervision who have turned over plans for future products."
Questions have already been raised about a potential conflict of interest between Musk's various businesses and his DOGE team's expedition through government agencies.
The billionaire has been classed as a "special government employee" but still has financial interests outside the White House.
"There's something more sinister potentially afoot in Musk potentially hovering up a ton of information related to his personal business interests," Owens said. "It could be a real treasure trove for Musk."
Representatives for Musk, X, DOGE, and the CFPB did not respond to a request for comment from Fortune.
CFPB has been in Big Tech's firing line
The shutdown of CFPB began late last week when DOGE descended on the agency's Washington headquarters.
Since then, the CFPB's official X account has been deactivated, and the homepage of the agency's website now displays a "404: page not found" error message.
The consumer-focused agency has long been a Republican target and had its scope significantly narrowed during Trump's first term.
It also appears to have been of particular interest to Musk, even before his cost-cutting team began its foray into the federal government.
In November, the billionaire said in a post on X: "Delete CFPB. There are too many duplicative regulatory agencies."
Musk isn't the only tech titan to take issue with the agency.
The CFPB has faced more general opposition in Silicon Valley, recently culminating in a lawsuit from TechNet and NetChoice, two groups backed by Big Tech.
Marc Andreessen has also attacked the agency, accusing it of “terrorizing financial institutions.”
