Jonathan Ernst/ReutersRaj Date, a former banker, is temporarily leading the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is going through a growth spurt.
The agency, born out of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory law, announced eight new hires on Tuesday, nabbing a few people from President Obama’s White House staff. The new recruits will fill senior leadership spots, including chief of staff and the bureau’s chief financial officer.
“The C.F.P.B. needs highly qualified staff, from those who are skilled in handling individual consumer complaints to experts in legislative and intergovernmental affairs to lawyers who are able to craft clear and precise rules,” Raj Date, who is leading the bureau, said in a statement. “Together with the C.F.P.B. staff already on board, these new hires will help us ensure that consumers have the information they need to make the financial choices that are best for them.”
Mr. Date said on Tuesday that he hired Nicholas Rathod, a recent White House official and a past adviser to former Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York, as the consumer bureau’s assistant director for intergovernmental and international matters. Roberto J. Gonzalez, a former special assistant to Mr. Obama, will become the bureau’s principal deputy general counsel. Lisa Konwinski, a deputy director of White House legislative affairs under President Obama, will serve a similar role at the C.F.P.B.
Mr. Date named Stephen J. Agostini to the chief financial officer spot, a role he previously held at another federal agency, the United States Office of Personnel Management. Mr. Date also promoted Meredith Fuchs, a top lawyer at the agency, to become chief of staff.
Despite the hiring spree, the agency’s top spot remains vacant. The agency oversees banks and most other large lenders, but it needs Congress to approve a director before it can police payday lenders, debt collectors and other lightly regulated firms.
President Obama chose Richard Cordray, the bureau’s enforcement chief, to lead the agency. Most Republicans have vowed to block the nomination, unless the director’s powers are constrained.
On Monday, however, Mr. Cordray picked up one Republican supporter: Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts. Mr. Brown faces a fierce 2012 re-election battle with Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who helped set up the consumer bureau.