New CFPB Nomination Unlikely to Change Course of Agency

President Donald Trump has tapped Stuart Levenbach to serve as the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Levenbach, who previously worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, currently serves as an Associate Director at the Office of Management and Budget.

A new head at the bureau may lead to a shift in regulatory policy that impacts lenders across the U.S., but that’s only if the leader actually takes office and has a chance to make his priorities known.

Some politicians in Washington are skeptical that Levenbach’s nomination will have much of an impact on the CFPB, at least in the near future.

“Donald Trump’s sending the Senate a new nominee to lead the CFPB looks like nothing more than a front for Russ Vought to stay on as Acting Director indefinitely as he tries to illegally close down the agency,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said in a statement, according to a recent report.

Levenbach’s past experience includes time with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

PBS News discloses that Vought can only stay in his role as Acting Director with the CFPB for a limited time due to the Vacancies Act. But President Trump’s nomination of Levenbach stands to impact the length of Vought’s tenure.

“The Vacancies Act generally allows someone to be in an acting temporary role for 210 days, or while a nomination is pending in the Senate,” Brandy Bruyere, Partner at Honigman, LLP, told CUToday.info. “By making a nomination, this allows Acting Director Vought to continue to serve in the CFPB role even if 210 days [have] gone by.”

Lenders eager to learn where Levenbach may steer the agency if the Senate approves him for the role will have to take a wait-and-see approach for the time being.