The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) -- the government watchdog charged with safeguarding American consumers’ finances -- has come to a virtual standstill Saturday night, according to an internal email obtained by ABC News.

The email sent late Saturday night directs all CFPB staff to "cease all supervision and examination activity" and "cease all stakeholder engagement" effective immediately. The agency’s website shows an error message and its X account was also taken down.

The email was sent by Russell Vought, the newly confirmed director of the Office of Management and Budget, who is also now the acting director of the CFPB. Vought was an architect of "Project 2025."

In a post on X, Vought said the CFPB’s funding, which comes through the Federal Reserve, is "now being turned off."

Vought's internal email also says that, unless approved by him or required by law, employees, contractors and other personnel of the CFPB cannot issue any proposed or final rules, open any new investigations or issue any public communications.

On Friday, Elon Musk tweeted "CFPB RIP." Sources previously told ABC News that staffers for Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency had gained access to internal systems at the CFPB.

The CFPB is a regulatory agency established by law after the 2008 financial crisis.

The agency says, since its creation in 2011, it has returned nearly $21 billion to American consumers.

Under the Biden administration, the CFPB took aggressive steps to take on the banking and financial services industries, issuing rules that would cap credit card overdraft fees and remove medical debt from Americans’ credit reports.

-ABC News' Elizabeth Schulze, Will Steakin and Katherine Faulders