Federal consumer bureau data-mining hundreds of millions of consumer credit card accounts, mortgages

◼ Officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are conducting a massive, NSA-esque data-mining project collecting account information on an estimated 991 million American credit card accounts. - Richard Pollock/Washington Examiner

It was also learned at a Congressional hearing Tuesday that CFPB officials are working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency on a second data-mining effort, this one focused on the 53 million residential mortgages taken out by Americans since 1998.

The mortgage information is being compiled in a database that can be "reversed engineered" by hackers seeking information for identify theft, according to an expert cited during the hearing.

The revelations came in a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, during which CFPB Director Richard Cordray was repeatedly pressed about federal officials rummaging around in the private financial affairs of millions of Americans.