ACA International, citing a published report, says that Thomas Pahl, the acting director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, is leaving the post to to be the policy director for research, markets, and regulation at the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.
This will mark Pahl’s second stint at the CFPB. He previously spent more than three years at the agency as the managing counsel in the office of regulations. He left the Bureau in 2016 for a Washington, D.C., law firm, before joining the FTC in February 2017.
In a press release announcing his hiring at the FTC, it was noted that while at the CFPB during his first stint, Pahl worked on debt collection issues. Could his return mean that a debt collection rule is on the horizon?
Recently, during the RMA’s annual conference in February, Pahl spoke and said that the lack of a debt collection rule was a “missed opportunity” because rules “improve clarity.”
In those remarks, Pahl spoke about how the FTC and CFPB were going to be working closer together now that both agencies were headed by like-minded individuals. Pahl spoke about how he was not a fan of the “regulation by enforcement” strategy of former director Richard Cordray.
Pahl is scheduled to speak at ACA’s annual Washington Insights conference next month.
