Former CEO of payday lender wants watchdog job
The former CEO of a payday lending company that had been under investigation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has asked to be considered for the top job at the watchdog agency, The Associated Press has learned.
Such a request would have been extraordinary in the years when the agency was run by an Obama appointee and often targeted payday lenders. Along with recent actions taken by the CFPB, it suggests a cozier relationship between industry and regulator since the Trump administration took over in November.
Under Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s budget director and acting director of the CFPB, the bureau has taken a decidedly friendlier approach to the financial industry including cutting down on enforcement and dropping investigations or lawsuits against payday lenders and other companies. It also has proposed to revise or rescind many rules put into place by Richard Cordray, the first permanent director of the agency, including some that would have put additional restrictions on payday lendWho ers.
Under Cordray, the CFPB opened an investigation into lending practices at World Acceptance. On Jan. 22, the company said the investigation had been completed without enforcement action. It also said CEO Janet Matricciani had resigned after 2 ½ years in that position.
Two days later, Matricciani sent an email to what appears to be Mulvaney’s personal email address to pitch herself as a candidate to lead the CFPB.
The email was shared exclusively with The Associated Press by Allied Progress, a left-leaning consumer advocacy group, which obtained the document as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.
“I would love to apply for the position of director of the CFPB. better than me understand the need to treat consumers respectfully and honestly, and the equal need to offer credit to lower income consumers in order to help them manage their daily lives?” Matricciani wrote to Mulvaney.
She attached her resume to the email.
She goes so far as to cite the CFPB’s investigation into her company as an experience that uniquely qualifies her for the job.
World Acceptance, one of the nation’s biggest payday lenders, is based in South Carolina and gave Mulvaney thousands of dollars in campaign contributions while he represented the state in Congress.
There is no evidence that Mulvaney acted upon Matricciani’s request other than forwarding the email to his official government email account.
President Trump has not announced a nominee for a permanent director of the CFPB and a senior adviser for Mulvaney said in response to questions from The Associated Press that Matricciani is not being considered for any jobs at the CFPB.
Allied Progress has called for an investigation into Mulvaney’s actions as CFPB head.