Kathleen Kraninger took a step towards becoming the next Director of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection [1] after a 50-49 procedural vote by the Senate advanced her nomination towards a full Senate vote. She will succeed Acting Director Mick Mulvaney at the bureau if her nomination passes the Senate vote next week.
Kraninger's nomination was passed by the Senate Banking Committee in August. During that hearing, Sen. Mike Crapo had said, “It is my hope that, if confirmed, Ms. Kraninger will be more accountable to senators on this Committee than Director Cordray was.”
During her testimony, Kraninger hinted at pursuing a similar path as the current Acting Director Mick Mulvaney. She said that she had four initial priorities for the Bureau if confirmed as Director The first priority she said would be to make the Bureau “fair and transparent.”
Secondly, Kraninger intends for BCFP to work closely with other financial regulators and the States on supervision and enforcement. Third, she said, “The Bureau must recognize its profound duty to the American people to protect sensitive information in its possession.”
And lastly, she said that she would look at making the Bureau “accountable to the American people for its actions, including its expenditure of resources.”
Kraninger is likely to follow the path set by Acting Director Mulvaney during his time at the BCFP. Mulvaney's entry into the Bureau in November 2017 was a controversial one and has been in the news this year as much for the changes he's brought to the Bureau as the controversies around them. From requesting $0 for the Bureau's budget in Q2, and recommending four key changes [2] to make the BCFP "more transparent and accountable," to the more recent change of name from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, the Acting Director is expected to leave his mark before he hands over the reins to his successor.