Rumor: Trump Said To Eye Ex-OneWest Employee For CFPB

President Donald Trump is reportedly considering a former OneWest Bank employee for a spot in his administration, said The Wall Street Journal.

Trump is reportedly eyeing Joseph Otting, former OneWest CEO and former employee of the current U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The comptroller oversees the primary regulation of all federal and a number of state-chartered financial institutions, including savings banks and savings and loan associations.

The five-year term of the current comptroller, Thomas J. Curry, expires in April of this year.

Separately, another OneWest employee is also under consideration for a different financial position in the Trump administration. Former OneWest General Counsel Brian Brooks is reportedly a favorite for a position as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said CNBC.

The CFPB director position, currently held by Richard Cordray, won’t be open until 2018. CNBC reported, however, that some industry experts have speculated that the White House may try to remove Cordray before next year. And yet, since Republican Sen. Ted Cruz recently introduced legislation to disband the CFPB, there may not even be a position for Brooks to fill.

Trump has long been a vocal opponent of the CFPB, which has been controversial from the start, particularly the allegedly wide-ranging and unchecked powers of its director.

While there have long been calls on Capitol Hill to reform or scale back the CFPB, at least two Republicans — one senator and one congressman — are ready to toss the whole thing on the scrap heap of history. A pair of twin bills introduced in the House and Senate — by Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. John Ratcliffe (both from Texas) — would abolish the CFPB entirely by repealing Title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which first established the CFPB in 2011.