Among the little nuggets of interesting information that were parsed out last week when Mick Mulvaney testified before the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee were that the name of the regulator he is working for is not what we’ve been calling it.
For years, we have referred to it as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But, as Mulvaney pointed out during his testimony, the name of the entity is actually the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. And if you look at the new seal that the regulator unveiled earlier this year, the agency is referred to as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. And if you read the press release the agency sent out last week about its consent order with Wells Fargo, it started, “Today the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (Bureau) announced a settlement with Wells Fargo Bank …”
It might not seem like much, but some have indicated that moving the word “bureau” to the front of the name from the back is an indication that the agency is moving away from protecting consumers.
“Doing that signals you want to take the emphasis away from serving consumers – which unfortunately is what Mulvaney’s been doing in many ways – and put it on ‘this is a bureaucracy’,” said Lisa Donner, executive director for the advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform, according to a published report.
Even switching from its original logo to a seal is being seen as an example of a new mission.
“You couldn’t find a better example of contrasting messaging here. One says ‘we are here to help’ while the other says ‘we are the mighty and here to protect,'” said Kit Yarrow, a professor of psychology and an expert on corporate branding at Golden Gate University.
The agency has even gone as far as to request that the Associated Press change its stylebook to refer to it as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection instead of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Until other changes are made, like the bureau’s website, AP said it will still refer to the agency as the CFPB.
The law that created the agency refers to it as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. But the agency started calling itself the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau early on and the name stuck.
Is this change a subtle indication of a new direction? Or is this just Mulvaney continuing to make good on his promise that he will follow the letter of the law and go no further? Or is it both?
It’s interesting to see the slight changes that something as simple as a name change can have on how a company is perceived in the public. Certainly the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection sounds less friendly than the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Only time will tell if that proves true.
