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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is shedding senior officials faster than it can replace them, raising concerns that the agency will no longer be able to maintain the aggressive pace set during its nearly two years of existence.
June 13 -
Raj Date, the former deputy director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has started a bank advisory firm that will focus on consumer finance issues, including assisting mergers and acquisitions through private equity partnerships.
April 17 -
Promontory's connections and expertise turned the consultant into a private sector regulatory proxy. But those same strengths put the firm in the crosshairs after its role in the failed foreclosure review process and controversial work for MF Global and Standard Chartered.
March 15
WASHINGTON - House Republicans are raising concerns that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's former deputy director, Raj Date, and other staffers "left the CFPB in order to profit from rules they helped create."
The lawmakers cite a
"Simply put, it appears that former CFPB employees are now offering financial products in a market sector created by the very rules they were in a position to influence while working in senior leadership positions at the CFPB," the GOP lawmakers said in a July 31 letter to CFPB Director Richard Cordray. "This conduct raises series questions about the integrity of the CFPB's rulemaking process and the conduct of some of its most senior former officials."
The letter is written by House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa of California, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling of Texas, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, and Patrick McHenry of North Carolina. It asks Cordray to hand over documents between the former CFPB officials and others related to the drafting of the qualified mortgage rule, data about the departure and subsequent employment of all CFPB officials back to 2010, and any communication between Date and other agency employees about his new firm during the writing of the qualified mortgage rule and since he's left the consumer agency. Lawmakers requested the information by Aug. 14.
Concerns over the revolving door between government and the private sector have gained increasing attention in recent months, though the practice remains exceedingly common for Capitol Hill staffers and agency officials looking to make use of their expertise after leaving public service.
Date defended his work at the consumer agency in a statement, noting that he was "part of a team that focused on carrying out congressional intent, listened openly to lots of points of view and tried to create transparent rules of the road for the marketplace."
"Now I'm back in the private sector, and I'm 100% focused on building a great business: great products, at great prices; to build great consumer relationships," he added.
