June 8, 2011
Raj Date, who held executive positions at both Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) and Deutsche Bank AG before joining the team at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has reportedly risen to the top of President Obama’s list to direct the new agency.
Bloomberg reports that according to an individual with knowledge of the proceedings, Date is one of the finalists to be nominated for CFPB director. Since February, Date has been the bureau’s associate director for research, markets and regulation, assisting Elizabeth Warren who is leading efforts to organize the agency ahead of its official opening.
“Date’s nomination could be a way for the Obama administration to tamp down political controversy over the leadership of the consumer agency, which is one of the centerpieces of Dodd-Frank,” reports Bloomberg.
Date, 40, has an engineering degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a law degree from Harvard University. He worked as senior vice president for corporate strategy and development at Capital One and a managing director in the financial institutions group at Deutsche Bank. During the debate over Dodd-Frank, Date led the Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy, a research group he started.
The potential nomination of Warren to formally lead the agency has been a source of great contention amongst lawmakers on Capitol Hill. At a recent House hearing, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) accused Warren of lying in a dispute over the length of time she had agreed to testify. (Read more)
“While Warren has won praise from lawmakers for the people she’s hired at the agency, she has continued to attract criticism from the biggest banks and from Republicans who contend that the director would have too much authority without enough accountability,” reports Bloomberg.
Several candidates approached by the Obama administration reportedly turned down the CFPB director opportunity in deference to Warren, including Democratic former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Democratic former Delaware Sen. Ted Kaufman and attorneys general from Iowa, Illinois and Massachusetts.
Many Democrats in Massachusetts are urging Warren to run for the Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy and now occupied by Republican Scott Brown. (Read more)
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