US Treasury secretary Scott Bescent said he had personally vetted Treasury employees on Elon Musk's government efficiency team who had read-only access to federal payments data and that the Treasury payments system had not been modified. "This is an operational plan to suggest improvements," Mr. Bescent said in an interview on Thursday. "The ability to change the system is in the hands of the Fed. This system is not even run by us." Mr. Bescent was confident in Mr. Musk's team, saying "these are trained professionals. This is not some wandering band. This is methodical and will save a lot of costs." "This is an operational review. This is not an ideological review," he added.