Contact: Linda Sherry, (202) 544-3088, or Ruth Susswein, (301) 718-2511

Despite the nominee having no related experience or qualifications, the Senate voted today in a lame duck session to confirm Kathy Kraninger as the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The Senate voted 50-49, along party lines, with all Democrats voting against the nominee for the five-year post.

“We need a consumer champion to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau—not someone with no record of standing up to corporations that abuse consumers,” said Linda Sherry, Consumer Action’s director of national priorities. “We expect Mick Mulvaney’s minion Kathy Kraninger to follow in lockstep with his not-so-secret plans to weaken, even destroy, the Bureau. We fear more cuts to enforcement and oversight of financial firms, neglect of student lending and fair lending concerns, and threats to ban public access to the CFPB complaint database. We need a consumer financial protector, not a ‘neglector.’”

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is the only federal financial regulator created to inform and protect consumers’ interests. It was founded to protect consumers from the kinds of shenanigans that brought on a global recession—and to make sure that big banks, financial services providers and financial scammers are held accountable.