InfoBytes Blog
Kraninger rejects CFPB name change
On December 19, new CFPB Director, Kathy Kraninger emailed staff stating she has decided to not move forward with changing the name of the agency to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Former acting Director Mick Mulvaney—to whom Kraninger previously reported at the Office of Management and Budget—had initiated the change and released an official agency seal referring to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection on the grounds that the Dodd-Frank Act generally used that name for the agency rather than Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In an email to Bureau staff, Kraninger stated the seal and the “statutory name given in Dodd-Frank” will be used for “statutorily required reports, legal filings, and other items specific to the Office of the Director,” but “[t]he name ‘Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’ and the existing CFPB logo will continue to be used for all other materials.” The decision comes soon after an internal report allegedly calculated the name change to cost anywhere between $9 million and $19 million dollars and after a request by Senator Elizabeth Warren for the Bureau’s Inspector General to conduct an investigation into Mulvaney’s decision to change the name.
This appears to be one of the first significant decisions Kraninger has made since becoming the Bureau’s second confirmed Director. While her reversal of the course set by Mulvaney is noteworthy, her views on consumer financial protection issues are still largely unknown, and it remains to be seen whether she will continue with her predecessor’s initiatives on substantive matters.