When Bessent took over earlier this week, staff members were told to stop all of the agency's work "unless expressly approved by the Acting Director or required by law," according to an internal email shared with NPR. The email instructed CFPB staff not to launch or settle any enforcement actions. The CFPB has long been a punching bag among Republicans, the banking sector, and some in Silicon Valley for its investigations, enforcement actions and fines in consumer protection cases. Wells Fargo agreed, in 2022, to a $3.7 billion settlement with the CFPB for allegedly taking advantage of customers on their auto and mortgage loans. CFPB fined Equifax $15 million over errors tied to millions of peoples' consumer credit reports. And last year, the agency sued Capital One claiming the bank misled customers by not paying them the savings account interest rate it was advertising.