A recent reshuffling inside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has curtailed the independence of the bureau’s enforcement division, according to multiple sources.

The CFPB is now requiring its enforcement division to get approval from a new office inside its Supervision, Enforcement and Fair Lending Division (SEFL) before opening new investigations or research matters, according to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and multiple sources familiar with the matter.

“Organizational structure shapes policy, and this reorganization appears to be an effort to weaken the Office of Enforcement and hinder the Bureau’s ability to protect consumers against companies’ abusive business practices and enforce federal consumer financial laws now and in the future,” Brown, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, said in a statement Friday.

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