Kraninger Provides First Public Remarks as Director of the CFPB

On her first day as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Kathy Kraninger held a press conference where she announced a three-month listening tour with the agency’s stakeholders, which would include federal and state regulators and consumer advocates.

During the press conference, it is reported that Kraninger distanced herself from her former boss at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Mick Mulvaney, who had been the acting director of the CFPB for the past year.   

“I am incredibly grateful to Mick Mulvaney, he was a fantastic boss for two years. I loved my time at OMB,” said Kraninger. “But I can tell you that I am here to be the director of this bureau and I will be fully accountable for the decisions that I make going forward and they will be mine.”

One of her first tasks is to decide whether the agency should officially change its name from the CFPB to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP), which could cost upwards of $300 million.

“Many continue to be concerned about it and want to make sure again that consumers know the brand of this agency,” said Kraninger. “There are resource implications, frankly, of going from CFPB to Bureau for Consumer Financial Protection, and then going back to it, so again there are resource implications here that I will weigh.”

Kraninger also said that most financial services firms want to comply with consumer protection laws. For the bad actors in the industry however, “we absolutely will take the enforcement actions to the full extent of the law and make sure we are protecting consumers.”