Musk’s Dogs points to the US consumer protection agency.

The Trump Administration and the Efficiency Department of the Government of Elon Musk (Doge) have moved to take control of an agency established to protect consumers following the financial crisis 2007-8.

The Consumer Financial Protection Office (CFPB) supervises banks and has vast consumer data dressers.

As part of the United States Federal Reserve, the CFPB is an independent agency, however, Trump’s budget director was installed as a director on Friday, and Doge officials have obtained access to the agency’s computer systems.

About 100 workers protested outside the CFPB office on Saturday.

The agency is the last department of the US government.

Musk and Dege have already headed the effort to eliminate the USAID, the main foreign aid agency in the United States, and Doge employees have also been seen in several other departments of the federal government.

The number of Dux personnel, its budget and its operational structure is not clear. Musk and the White House have provided few details about Dux operations, and the names of Doge employees come mainly from the leaks of government employees.

CBS, the American news partner of the BBC, reported that Doge representatives have obtained access to the internal CFPB systems, including personnel rolls and financial records.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Doge representatives had obtained “reading” access to CFPB computer systems.

The agency regulates banks and financial institutions with more than $ 10 billion (£ 8 billion) in assets.

It was established in 2011 as part of the reforms after the agitation of the great recession in 2007-8, which was partly triggered by an accident in the high-level mortgage loan market of the United States.

It has around 1,750 employees and an annual budget of $ 758 million.

Fields complaints about customer financial products and has some power to establish consumer finance rules. In 2024, for example, it limited late credit card to $ 8 (£ 6.45), although that rule change has been delayed by a legal challenge.

The agency has long been the objective of the Republicans who have accused it of overreach, unduly restricting banks and using money from fines and agreements to finance left -wing activist groups.

The main page of the CFPB website returned an error message on Saturday, however, much of the rest of the site seemed to be functioning as normal.

The main democrat at the Chamber Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters, has published a statement that affirmed that Dege was “systematically killing CFPB.”

“The acquisition of Musk of the CFPB is a crisis of five alarms and a terrifying violation of the privacy of the data of millions of Americans. As is, Musk can now see the personal information of the people who, after being scammed by The bad actors communicated with the CFPB in a moment of despair, “Waters said.

Waters said these data could include bank extracts, credit card information, social security numbers and medical information.

In a statement, the National Treasury Employee Union, which represents CFPB employees, said Doge activities were equivalent to a “potentially dangerous incursion.” The union said it would pursue all the ways to protect the private data from consumers and financial institutions.

On Friday, Musk wrote “CFPB RIP” in his account X. Publishing several times per hour, he repeated accusations of crime, fraud and generalized abuse throughout the government and indicated that he would try to close the office.

Last month, President Trump dismissed the director of CFPB, Rohit Chopra, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, and installed the Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besent, as head of the agency.

But on Friday, Trump made another change, giving the agency’s control to Russell Vought, the newly approved director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Vought was the author of the 2025 project, A list of proposals issued by the group of experts of the Heritage Foundation – One of which requires that the CFPB be abolished.

The BBC contacted the CFPB, the White House and a Dux spokeswoman to comment.