The fate of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) seems sealed, and bleak, after Trump administration officials claimed it couldn’t legally acquire any funding from its source, the Federal Reserve.

The CFPB, a consumer watchdog of the financial services industry that Elizabeth Warren proposed before Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act, filed a notice in federal court this week that the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel said the agency “may not legally request funds at this time” from the Fed, according to a news release.

Without additional funding, the regulator said it should be able to continue operations “until at least” the end of the year.

At the center of the issue is how the Justice Department now interprets CFPB’s funding mechanism. Dodd-Frank states that the agency is to receive funding from the Fed’s “combined earnings.” The Justice Department now claims “combined earnings” means profit, and therefore noted if “the Federal Reserve has no profits, it cannot transfer money to the CFPB,” Politico reported. This is an argument CFPB opponents have been making since the Supreme Court ruled the agency was constitutional last year, although “several federal justices have rejected that theory,” according to Politico.

“This is terrible for the American economy, because it’s terrible for the American consumer,” Mayra Rodríguez Valladares, a financial risk consultant and trainer, told CFO Brew. Rodríguez Valladares said the CFPB is meant to prevent consumers from falling for predatory lending products, which led to the global financial crisis nearly two decades ago.

What’s next for the CFPB?—AZ

Jaguar Land Rover took a sizable financial hit from the cyberattack that caused it to slam the brakes on its operations in September.

The UK-based carmaker reported a loss equivalent to $736 million in its most recent quarter, compared to a profit of $373 million in the same period a year ago. In baseball terms, JLR’s loss nearly reached the territory of Juan Soto’s bloated contract. The company’s quarterly revenue decreased 24% YoY.

JLR said the massive swing in profitability and revenue was largely due to the cyber incident—which cost the company $258 million—along with US tariffs and a “planned wind-down” in production of the “legacy Jaguar model.”

“JLR has made strong progress in recovering its operations safely and at pace following the cyber incident,” CEO Adrian Mardell said in a statement. “In our response we prioritised client, retailer and supplier systems and I am pleased to confirm that production of all our luxury brands has resumed.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that the JLR incident was “likely the most costly of a series of cyberattacks” targeting UK businesses this year.

How much did the recent cyberattack damage JLR?—AZ

AI continues to evolve and state-of-the-art enterprise solutions are populating corporate America like wild rabbits. While options are boundless, actually creating efficiencies can feel like finding a needle in a tech haystack.

A recent report from SaaS company Freshworks, “The Global Cost of Complexity,” adds much-needed context to the conversation. Based on a survey of 700 employees across IT, customer experience, finance, and operations, it outlines the struggles companies are seeing when overwhelmed by software deployment. The report found that:

• Complexity is responsible for 6.8 hours lost weekly per employee and $1 of every $5 spent on total software costs.
• Organizational complexity accounts for 7% of total annual revenue loss for an average business.
• There is a 20% “regret spend” in redundant or underutilized tools.

The report makes for stark reading, especially in an era when AI-powered systems are meant to increase productivity and help businesses work smarter. As the synopsis states, “the result isn’t sophistication—it’s unnecessary complexity.” Finding that elusive ROI continues to be a big problem, with the report finding that only 47% of organizations are hitting their targets.

“For years, companies have been conditioned to believe complexity signals sophistication. Our research confirms what I’ve long believed—the very tools meant to help businesses move faster are now holding them back,” Dennis Woodside, Freshworks CEO, said.

Keep reading Revenue Brew’s story on how tech complexity is costing companies here.—BS

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s weekly news quiz has been compared to getting a company-wide shout-out from your boss. It’s that satisfying.

Skip the noise and cut to the jobs that matter. CollabWORK curates openings from top employers and shares them directly in trusted spaces like CFO Brew—click here to see the full list for readers like you.