One answer to that question might be: “What didn’t they do? It’s a shorter list.” Among other things, the agency publicized its credit card complaint data and advanced plans to do the same for the other types of complaints the bureau receives. It provided testimony to Congress on its mortgage disclosure integration project, and released guidance to address mortgage servicer practices related to U.S. service members and put folks in the reverse mortgage industry on notice.
The agency also announced changes to its senior leadership:
- Steven Antonakes, the assistant director of Large Bank Supervision will now serve as the associate director for Supervision, Enforcement and Fair Lending.
- Meredith Fuchs, who will now serve as agency general counsel, joined the bureau in 2011 as principal deputy general counsel before serving as chief of staff to CFPB Director Richard Cordray. Garry Reeder, who has been serving as senior advisor to the deputy director, will now serve as acting chief of staff.
- Len Kennedy, who will now serve as Cordray’s senior advisor and counselor, most recently held the position of general counsel and CFPB associate director.
- Camille Busette joined the CFPB as assistant director of the Office of Financial Education. Before joining the bureau, Busette was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress where she focused on financial opportunities for low income populations.
- Clifford Rosenthal joined the CFPB as assistant director of financial empowerment. Before joining the bureau, he served for more than 30 years as president and chief executive officer of the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions.
- Wendy Kamenshine, the CFPB ombudsman, began at the CFPB in July 2011 as the acting ombudsman to establish the CFPB Ombudsman’s Office and officially joined the CFPB last month.
It’s clear the dust never settles at the CFPB, even so, the month of June has been remarkable. In addition to last week’s activities, the bureau has: inked a memorandum of understanding on supervisory coordination; published comments from student loan borrowers; asked the public to provide data on student loan complaints; launched an inquiry into financial elder abuse; issued three final rules and one proposed rule; and published numerous Federal Register notices.
Bureau representatives have been everywhere and seeing everyone. For instance, CFPB Deputy Director Raj Date spoke at an American Bankers Association convention in Florida on June 11 while Cordray was in Washington, D.C., for World Elder Abuse Awareness Day Events. Bart Shapiro, senior advisor, small business, community banks and credit unions was in Cleveland on June 13 for the National Settlement Services and Compliance Summit hosted by October Research LLC, publisher of Dodd Frank Update.
The bureau’s unlikely to slow down in the coming weeks either. The agency is expected to propose highly anticipated rules and forms combining residential mortgage disclosures sometime in July. The agency also plans to hold a field hearing on reverse mortgages in Tampa, Fla., on June 27. Folks in the industry will want to keep an eye on this, as these CFPB field hearings usually seem to coincide with the launch of a formal information gathering effort or some other bureau action.