By Douglas Gillison and Chris Prentice
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -The top official overseeing fair lending at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was placed on administrative leave, according to two people familiar with the matter, sidelining another senior figure at a watchdog agency President Donald Trump is seeking to minimize if not eliminate outright.
It was unclear what motivated the decision. Frank Vespa-Papaleo, CFPB assistant director for fair lending and equal opportunity, declined to comment. The CFPB did not immediately respond to queries about the decision.
Vespa-Papaleo told a federal court in April that the Trump administration’s plans to eliminate nearly 90% of the agency’s remaining workforce would have left him as the sole employee of his office.
In a sworn statement, he said the office would be left incapable of fulfilling its obligations under the law, such as overseeing banks’ and other companies’ compliance with laws prohibiting discrimination in lending.
The CFPB last month decided to end an oversight agreement with Bank of America three years early that had been part of a settlement in which officials in 2023 alleged the bank had routinely submitted inaccurate information about mortgage applicants to the federal government.
Also last month, a federal judge in Chicago blocked the CFPB’s request to undo a racial discrimination settlement with a mortgage originator.
A federal appeals court in Washington has yet to decide on the Trump administration’s effort to undo a court injunction blocking the agency from firing most agency staff.
Trump has accused the CFPB, without citing evidence, of politicized oversight and vowed to eliminate it. Senior officials have argued in court that a far smaller version will persist.
Attorneys representing CFPB workers have said the administration illegally plans to nullify a body created by Congress.
(Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington and Chris Prentice in New York; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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