Raj Date, second-in-command at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will leave the agency he helped create, come Jan. 31, 2013. He will depart “after the CFPB finalizes the slate of mortgage rules Congress mandated,” a spokeswoman said yesterday.
The CFPB has not yet named a replacement.
Date played a key part in the mortgage rule-writing project, conferring with bank executives and consumer group officials as the CFPB crafted noteworthy rules compliant with the 2010 Dodd-Frank law. The rules, such as one entitled “qualified mortgage,” are targeted to protect consumers from shady practices in the home-lending sector. These regulations will become the CFPB’s imprint, as well as one of its most complex ventures. If written too strictly, stakeholders believe they could restrict the home-loan market.
Date is a former Wall Street executive whose past companies include Deutsche Bank Securities and Capital One Financial Corp. He helped institute the CFPB, an agency the financial services industry was against, though Date’s Wall Street experience lessened some of that anxiety.
Date ran the CFPB following the August 2011 departure of its chief advocate Elizabeth Warren until President Barack Obama appointed former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray director in January 2012. The following day, Cordray named Date deputy director. Cordray is expected to stay in his post until his term expires at the end of next year.
Spokeswoman Jen Howard stated that Date has “no current plans for his career after the CFPB, other than to spend more time with his family.”
