Kraninger Kills Effort to Rename CFPB
At a cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars, Acting Director Mick Mulvaney’s effort to rebrand the agency has been abandoned.
In one of her first moves, new CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger has halted all efforts to change the name of the agency, according to an email sent to agency staff.
“After being fully briefed on the costs, operational challenges and the effect on stakeholders, I have carefully weighed the options,” Kraninger said, in the email announcing that former Acting Director Mick Mulvaney’s effort to rebrand the agency has been abandoned.
During his time at the agency, Mulvaney declared that under federal law, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—or CFPB—should be called the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection—or BCFP.
Mulvaney and critics of the CFPB viewed the name change as part of an effort to rein in the consumer bureau.
Asked about the issue last week, new agency Kraninger said she is more concerned about what the agency does rather than what it is called.
Recent reports have said that internal documents show that the name change could cost the CFPB and the financial community hundreds of millions of dollars.
Despite Mulvaney’s decision, the agency’s website has continued to call the bureau the CFPB.
On the other hand, credit union trade groups have started referring to the agency as the BCFP and the sign outside the agency’s office has been changed.
Kraninger said while she understood Mulvaney’s desire to follow the letter of the law, the name CFPB and the agency logo will continue to be used.
She said that for reports required by law, the bureau seal and the statutory name will be used.
“In other words, we have a legal name but will be using our colloquial name and the branded acronym, ‘CFPB,’” she wrote.
She added that many people have legal names but use nicknames without confusion.
“My birth certificate says Kathleen, but I also answer to Kathy,” she wrote.
Sen Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) this week asked the agency’s Inspector General to investigate whether Mulvaney had used the proper administrative rules in changing the name. She also raised the cost issue and said the name change would create confusion.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has gone a step further. Waters, the likely chair of the House Financial Services Committee during the next Congress has introduced legislation to halt the name change.