*

CFPB staff told to halt work by acting director Vought

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Musk's department gains access to CFPB systems, halts

oversight

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Democrats rally against CFPB shutdown, citing consumer

protection risks

(Adds context in paragraphs 11-12, Waters statement in

paragraphs 13-14, Synchrony CFO comments in paragraph 15-16,

context in paragraphs 17-18.)

By Douglas Gillison

Feb 10 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's newly

installed chief of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

told all of the agency's staff on Monday to stay away from the

office and do no work, according to an email reviewed by

Reuters.

The move, which followed a weekend decision to shutter the

watchdog's Washington headquarters, idled a federal agency of

nearly 2,000 workers tasked with enforcing consumer financial

laws nationwide.

"Employees should not come into the office," acting CFPB

Director Russell Vought said in an email to all staff. "Please

do not perform any work tasks."

The move underscored tumult at the federal regulator since

Vought took control of the agency on Friday. Its new leader is a

longtime budget hawk and architect of the right-wing policy

manifesto known as Project 2025, which called for the CFPB's

abolition.

The Trump administration's efforts to neutralize the agency

escalated rapidly over the weekend as billionaire Elon Musk's

Department of Government Efficiency gained full access to CFPB

computer systems. Vought ordered a stop to all oversight of

consumer financial companies.

Musk has publicly vowed to destroy the CFPB. The agency

could otherwise regulate one of his planned business ventures

with payments giant Visa.

Confrontations with staff, Democratic lawmakers and

progressive organizations were set to continue on Monday, with a

rally planned for outside the agency's headquarters near the

White House.

Meanwhile, in a federal lawsuit filed Sunday, the National

Treasury Employees Union, which represents CFPB staff, argued

that Vought's actions violated the Constitution by undercutting

Congress' power to set and fund the agency's missions.

The CFPB was created as part of the sweeping 2010

Dodd-Frank financial reform law, as part of an effort to ensure

a sole agency was charged with monitoring the financial

wellbeing of consumers.

The agency does not receive direct funding from

Congress, but rather requests its budget from the Federal

Reserve. Vought has already said he intends to seek no new

funding for the CFPB, which currently has cash reserves of over

$700 million.

Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking

Committee who first proposed and helped launch the agency, said

that she was "ringing the alarm bell" in a video on Monday.

The Trump-Musk effort to kill the CFPB was a "payoff" to

campaign donors who wanted to be rid of government oversight,

Warren said.

She and Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House

Financial Services Committee, will meet in front of the CFPB's

headquarters on Monday to demand answers regarding Musk's

"takeover of the agency," according to a statement from Waters'

office.

"Without the CFPB, hardworking families would have no

federal agency solely focused on protecting them from predatory

financial firms or to make sure they are compensated after being

mercilessly ripped off," Waters said on Saturday.

Synchrony Financial ( SYF ) Chief Financial Officer

Brian Wenzel said the company has not changed the way it

interacts with the CFPB so far.

"We are keeping our head down," he told a financial

conference on Monday. "We have a lot of respect for the CFPB, we

will continue to deal with them, it's business as usual."

Since its inception, the CFPB has been a political lightning

rod, as the financial industry and Republican lawmakers have

long griped it is too powerful and lacks accountability.

Those complaints escalated under its most recent

Democratic director, Rohit Chopra, whom they argued tested the

boundaries of legal activity at the agency with his aggressive

policing of the financial sector. But its backers argue it has

served as a critical safeguard for consumers, reaping billions

in repaid funds to wronged parties.