Continuing her pattern of “less is more” when it comes to sharing her thoughts, Kathy Kraninger, the new permanent director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection was guarded during a 25-minute session with reporters yesterday, but did offer a few glimpses into her priorities now that she is in charge of the regulator.
For example, Kraninger refused to commit to officially renaming the agency to the BCFP from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a change that was started by her predecessor and former boss, Mick Mulvaney, who was acting director of the agency following the resignation of former director Richard Cordray.
“I am definitely going to be briefed on the name, and I can tell you that I care more about what the agency does then what it is called,” she said.
She also refused to commit to making any decisions about Eric Blankenstein, a CFPB official who has been under fire for alleging that most hate crimes were hoaxes. Mulvaney had said that Blankenstein would not be fired for the remarks, which were made back in 2004.
What Kraninger did say was that she would be engaging in a listening tour, hitting all of the BCFP’s regional offices, as well as attempting to meet with Congressional leaders and Cordray, if he is interested.
Kraninger also was less emphatic about the practice of regulation by enforcement, in which the agency, under Cordray, used enforcement actions against financial services companies as de facto rules that every other institution should follow. Mulvaney had famously announced that regulation by enforcement was dead during his tenure. Yesterday, Kraninger went as far as to say that regulation by enforcement is “pushing the envelope.”
Without going into much detail, Kraninger said one of her priorities during her first months atop the BCFP will be data security and data protection and how the agency secures all of the data it collects and analyzes.
“Data security and data privacy going to be a big focal point in terms of what the bureau collects, how it’s used, how long it’s stored, what information is appropriate to be shared among regulators,” Kraninger said.
