Former top deputy at consumer bureau quietly joins Capital One

Another high-ranking official at the Obama administration’s financial protection agency has gone to Wall Street this month, The Hill has learned.

Meredith Fuchs, who most recently served as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) acting deputy director, has gone to the credit and banking giant Capital One.

{mosads}She now serves as the bank’s senior vice president and chief counsel on regulatory issues, her recently updated LinkedIn page says. There have been no press releases from the agency or Capital One announcing her move.

Capital One and the CFPB did not immediately return a request for comment.

It is the latest in a slew of departures from the young agency, which was created by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law in 2010.

Since it opened its doors in 2011, at least 45 CFPB employees have left the agency for the private sector, snapped up by companies including JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, PayPal, Bank of America and BlackRock. 

Some former CFPB officials have joined top K Street firms or influential consulting forms, like Promontory Financial Group, while others have gone to the Center for Responsible Lending, a non-profit that pushes for stricter consumer protections. 

Fuchs had been with the agency since its early days, first serving as the principal deputy general counsel. 

She then took on the role of chief of staff, serving for a time under Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who helped establish the bureau at the White House before being elected to the Senate.  

When Fuchs succeeded the CFPB’s former deputy director — Steven Antonakes, who left last year to join Eastern Bank — she continued to serve in the role of general counsel.

She does have private sector experience, including working for seven and a half years at the National Security Archive, a research institute and library located at The George Washington University, according to her LinkedIn page. From 1997 to 2002, Fuchs worked at law firm Wiley Rein.

Updated at 5:00 p.m.