A pair of senior officials from the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection spoke on a panel earlier this week at the Practicing Law Institute’s Consumer Financial Services Institute. The panel was moderated by Alan Kaplinsky of Ballard Spahr and included Chris Willis, who heads the firm’s consumer financial services litigation and enforcement practice.
Kristen Donoghue, the enforcement director at the CFPB, and Allison Brown, the deputy assistant director for servicing in the CFPB’s Office of Supervision Policy, represented the agency on the panel.
Donoghue said during the panel that it would be a “mistake” for lawyers to advise their clients that the agency is “relaxing” its enforcement activities. Donoghue pointed to the recent trial in Ohio against Weltman Weinberg and Reis and a consent order the agency entered into with Wells Fargo as public evidence of the CFPB’s continuing enforcement actions, and, following similar comments made by acting director Mick Mulvaney, added that the agency is still actively litigating two dozen cases in federal court.
For the CFPB, this is the first time it has undergone a leadership change and that process has mirrored how other federal agencies transition from one director to the next, Donoghue said, adding that there have been “a lot of ‘get-to-know-you’ meetings during which career Bureau staff members have been explaining to the Acting Director ‘why things are the way they are,’ which she indicated has been a valuable exercise,” according to a Ballard Spahr report of the discussion.
