Two top Democrats raised concerns about an Elon Musk-led effective shuttering of a consumer financial watchdog as the world’s richest man launches his own payment system.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) demanded that staffers at Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” be removed from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau amid fears of the billionaire “enriching himself and supercharging his new digital payment platform.”

The senators are concerned that safeguards offered by the CFPB, set up to protect consumers in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal, will be weakened just as Musk rolls out a new digital wallet and payment platform.

In a letter to CFPB’s acting director, Russell Vought, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the lawmakers said Musk is “not only neutralizing the pro-consumer agency that will supervise X’s digital wallet — he is also potentially gaining access to confidential corporate data that could provide X with an unfair advantage over its competitors.”

“Americans deserve a CFPB that will continue to stand up against corporate greed — not an agency shut down by officials looking out for themselves,” they added.

“With that in mind, we once again ask that you remove Mr. Musk’s operatives from the CFPB, restore all internal and external systems and operations, and allow the CFPB to continue to do its job of protecting American consumers.”

The senators also raised the alarm about Musk’s conflicts of interest with Tesla.

They wrote, “The CFPB plays a critical role in supervising the auto lending industry and protecting consumers from corporate malfeasance and scams. Therefore, actions by Mr. Musk and DOGE at the CFPB also have the potential to directly benefit Tesla — and by extension, Mr. Musk.

Musk has had a long-standing ambition to turn X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, into a virtual wallet and offer peer-to-peer payment services. Similar digital payment platforms have faced intense scrutiny by the CFPB.

Two weeks ago, Trump handed control of the consumer protection watchdog over to Vought, his new director of the Office of Management and Budget and an author of Project 2025, the right-wing blueprint to expand presidential power.

DOGE officials also gained access to the agency’s computer systems. Musk marked the takeover by writing on X, “CFPB RIP.”

A union accused the Trump administration of trying “dismantle” the agency after employees were told to essentially halt all operations.

In an email, Vought ordered staff to “cease all supervision and examination activity,” stop issuing regulatory guidance, halt pending investigations while refraining from opening new ones, and no longer “make or approve filings or appearances by the Bureau in any litigation, other than to seek a pause in proceedings.”

Prior to Vought’s diktat, Bessent had already told the agency’s staff to stop doing their jobs.

The CFPB and Treasury Department did not immediately reply to HuffPost’s requests for comment.