Reading tea leafs cont.
January 30, 2011 | CFPB, CFPB Nomination, Elizabeth Warren, federal legislation, Financial Reform Bill - CFPB | Comments (0)Banklawyersblog.com has some thoughts on recent hirings at the CFPB:
Interestingly, nowhere in the descriptions of the work histories of the General Counsel or any of his deputies do the words “consumer” or “financial” appear. None have any banking or financial institution experience, or consumer credit experience. The GC does have an excellent work history in the telecommunications industry and the FCC, and his deputies have a great deal of experience serving as lawyers to legislative committees of the US Congress, and as civil and criminal litigators and enforcement specialists in private practice. Ms Warren proclaimed that this “team…understands the economic pressures facing consumers across the country and is dedicated to leveling the playing field between lenders and families and bringing commonsense solutions to complex problems.” Parsing their resumes, I don’t see the words “economic,” “lenders,” or “families,” either.
Although it is too soon to tell how well these obviously bright people will function in a bureau whose primary mission is to regulate consumer financial products and services (and while their at it, to “level playing fields”), a logical preliminary prognostication might be that the choice of these people out of gate, which we assume was made “de facto” if not “de jure” by “Special Advisor” Elizabeth Warren, indicates that Ms. Warren wants to set the agenda on what consumer laws mean as far as the CFPB is concerned, and she doesn’t want dissenting voices from the bureau’s legal department who might have the actual experience and knowledge of consumer regulatory law to challenge her. She wants investigators, enforcers, and litigators to carry out the mission as she (and her fellow true believers) defines it, and to carry it out with the skill that people with such experience possess, but not to tell her to wait a minute because she might be on shaky legal ground.
Comments»
No comments yet.