Deputy Director Date of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to Step Down in January

by Jeffrey E. Jamison

Bloomberg News is reporting that Raj Date, the influential deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), will be leaving the Bureau at the end of January. Date joined the Bureau in February 2011 as the associate director of research, markets and regulations, overseeing the Bureau's work on credit card and mortgage regulations. In August 2011, Date replaced Elizabeth Warren as the Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury for the CFPB and was responsible for running the CFPB until President Obama's controversial recess appointment of Richard Cordray as the CFPB's first director in January 2012. Cordray immediately named Date the Bureau's first Deputy Director.

CFPB spokeswoman Jen Howard remarked, "[a]s the agency's first deputy director, Raj has helped to lead the agency's organizational, strategic, and policy direction." Howard also added that "[h]is legacy is a consumer bureau grounded in data-driven analysis, market-based pragmatism, and the real-world experiences of American consumers." There is speculation that Date is delaying his departure until January to help the CFPB finalize several mortgage-related rules, including the "qualified mortgage rule," which the CFPB-Lawblog has covered extensively. Date's departure continues the revolving door at the CFPB, which some have warned is just one of the difficulties that the CFPB will have in building an effective agency.

There has been no announcement regarding Date's plans after January 2013. Prior to joining the CFPB, Date worked at Capital One and Deutsche Bank. In 2009, Date started the Cambridge Winter Center, a nonprofit think tank devoted to promoting the regulation of financial firms. Stay tuned to the CFPB-Lawblog for updates and analysis as this story evolves.

Read more articles about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at Dykema's CFPB Blog

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