The new CFPB director said she was aware of the concerns about Eric Blankenstein
.jpg)
Kathy Kraninger, the new director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, declined to comment on the fate of senior official whose controversial blog posts have led Democrats and consumer groups to call for his termination, according to a report by The Washington Post.
Consumer advocacy organization Allied Progress previously called on then-CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney to fire Eric Blankenstein after The Washington Post reported his blog posts including one in which he claimed that a majority of hate crimes were hoaxes.
Mulvaney later asked the Inspector General Office of the Federal Reserve to conduct a formal investigation into controversial writings.
Kraninger said Dec. 11, her first day in office, that she had no intention of making personnel decisions on her first day, also saying that such matters are “inherently confidential.”
While she admitted that she knew of the issues raised about Blankenstein, Kraninger noted that the agency has 1,500 employees.
“I am not going to go back and look at everything they have ever written in their lives,” she said.
Kraninger is now among the most powerful banking regulators in the country after being sworn in on Dec. 10 by Vice President Mike Pence. Before her nominated for the top post at the CFPB, she was associate director of general government programs at the Office of Management and Budget for two years.
Blankenstein’s future at the CFPB is among the several issues the new director is set to face as she begins her five-year term at the consumer watchdog.
