CFPB Departure Could Delay Rulemaking Further

Leonard Chanin is vacating his post at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency reported this week.

Chanin leaves to rejoin the private sector as an attorney at Morrison & Foerster. To replace him, the agency has already said it will promote from within, moving Kelly Thompson Cochran into Chanin’s former role.

While with the Bureau, one of Chanin’s primary objectives was to write “dozens” of rules for the financial industry, according to the New York Times. That task appears to be giving regulators fits: in July, law firm Davis Polk reported that more than 61 percent of the rulemaking deadlines set out by Dodd-Frank had been missed as of July 18.

Beyond Chanin’s departure, the CFPB made several other changes to its organization, adding Chris Lipsett from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr as senior counsel in the Office of the Director, and promoting Stephen Van Meter to deputy general counsel. Delicia Reynolds Hand was also brought on, and named the new staff director for the Consumer Advisory Board and Councils.