OCC Sheds 140 Employees in Trump Buyout as Terminations Loom (1)

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency saw 140 employees accept the Trump administration’s deferred resignation buyouts as federal banking regulators prepare for further job cuts.

The workers who accepted the buyout offer will be put on administrative leave while they remain on the federal payroll through September, according to a Thursday internal OCC email obtained by Bloomberg Law.

“We want to acknowledge and express our support for all these employees as they navigate the steps ahead,” the email from the OCC’s Executive Committee said.

The Treasury Department reported the numbers to the OCC, according to the email. The OCC is an independent bureau of the Treasury Department that regulates nationally chartered banks.

The OCC declined to comment.

The 140 departures are in addition to 76 probationary employees the OCC fired in February, with many of those cuts coming in its midsize and community bank supervision unit.

The OCC had approximately 3,600 employees before the probationary firings and deferred resignations, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

The national bank regulator also told employees this week they would have to return to the office beginning March 31, which may lead to additional workforce attrition.

Workforce Cuts

Government agencies have until March 13 to file plans with the administration for further job cuts.

The deferred resignation program is part of the Trump administration’s plan to slash the federal workforce.

Workers across the federal government received an email from OPM in January giving them the option to resign but be paid through September. The offer mirrored one that Elon Musk, the face of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, made to Twitter employees after he took over the company.

Around 75,000 of the federal government’s 2.4 million employees took the deferred resignation buyout ahead of a February deadline.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. saw some 500 employees, or around 8% of its workforce, take the Trump administration’s buyout offer.