Trump’s acting chief of federal financial watchdog orders staff to pause activity

Russell Vought is now acting head of CFPB, created in wake of 2008 financial crash to supervise financial companies

Russell Vought, Donald Trump's newly installed acting head of the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, announced on Saturday he had cut off the agency's budget and reportedly instructed staff to suspend all activities including the supervision of companies overseen by the agency.

Reuters and NBC News reported that Vought wrote a memo to employees saying he had taken on the role of acting head of the agency, an independent watchdog that was founded in 2011 as an arm of the Federal Reserve to promote fairness in the financial sector.