Eric Blankenstein, a political appointee overseeing fair-lending policy at the agency, said in an email to staff that his blog posts from 14 years ago that used a racial epithet “reflected poor judgment.”
A growing chorus of CFPB employees are arguing that Eric Blankenstein, policy director of supervision, enforcement and fair lending at the CFPB, cannot be trusted to do his job fairly given his past blog posts.
The head of the agency’s fair-lending office cast doubt on a proposed reorganization of her office and raised concerns about blog posts written years ago by the political appointee overseeing the project.
The comments came on the same day that Denmark’s largest bank announced the resignation of CEO Thomas Borgen and said that as much as $234 billion flowed through its tiny Estonian unit between 2007 and 2015.
Though Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney tried unsuccessfully to strip the agency's fair lending office of its enforcement powers earlier this year, he insisted this week that the bureau "is still in the fair lending business."
Kathy Kraninger has been tight-lipped about her plans for the consumer bureau, but some point to signs that she could curb the agency's power by reducing staff and other costs.
Santander Bank said Wednesday that the OCC had terminated a 2015 consent order related to an identity protection product. It is one of several regulatory headaches the bank and its parent company have resolved lately.
State Treasurer John Chiang says that Wells Fargo is keeping patterns of abuse hidden from view by resolving customer disputes through private arbitration.
President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman was convicted on eight fraud counts, including two counts of bank fraud. He faces jail time on each count.
Several states pledged to compensate for a slowdown in enforcement at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under Mick Mulvaney, but their efforts have been complicated by tight budgets and doubts over whether such initiatives are necessary.
