CFPB Employee Sent Data on 256,000 Consumers to Personal Email

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 15, 2022. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

An employee of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) made unauthorized transfers of confidential data relating to 256,000 consumers to a personal email account, the bureau has revealed.

The CFPB found personally identifiable information relating to customers of seven institutions that had been forwarded by a staffer—who is no longer employed at the CFPB. The same staffer also accessed information that included names and transaction-specific account numbers related to about 256,000 consumer accounts at one institution.