Questions surrounding Eric Blankenstein, a senior CFPB official whose racially charged writings from over a decade ago have led to calls for his resignation, have been referred to the agency's watchdog.
The uproar over the incendiary writings of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau official have led to calls for his removal, but the agency’s interim chief says he won’t “let any outside group dictate who works here.”
Senate Democrats on Wednesday called for acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney to reveal the vetting process that led to the hiring of a political appointee whose past incendiary writings have caused an uproar at the agency.
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 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an interpretive rule Friday to clarify changes made to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act that were mandated by President Trump's regulatory relief law.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., released a survey of lending practices that he said point to practices such as forced arbitration clauses and extracting a customer’s credit score to determine creditworthiness.
