CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger Stops the Federal Agency’s Name Change

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) newly appointed director, Kathy Kraninger, has stopped efforts to change the name of the agency, according to an internal email she wrote to employees on Wednesday. In the email, Kraninger says that she has met with leadership and senior staff in her first few days at the Bureau and wants to tackle “the near-term issues” – one of which is the Bureau’s name.

Kraninger states, “To be clear, I care much more about what we do than what we are called. But this issue is an early priority because of implementation decisions that need to be made in real time.”

As mentioned in a previous blog, CFPB to BCFP: A Change that Could Cost Millions of Dollars, if the CFPB changed its name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP), it could cost financial firms about $300 million “to update internal databases, regulatory filings and disclosure forms with the new name in order to comply….”

Kraninger goes on in the email to say that she understands why her predecessor at the CFPB, Mick Mulvaney, wanted to change the name to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection but after assessing the “costs, operational challenges, and the effect on stakeholders,” she would officially end the ongoing efforts to change the name.

Instead, the agency would continue to use its statutory name, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, for legally “required reports, legal filings, and other items specific to the Office of the Director.” For all other materials, the agency would use the CFPB acronym.