A handful of career civil servants have retired from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau amid the confusion of whether the agency will survive and be downsized under the Trump administration.
Among them are Mark McArdle, an assistant CFPB director who led the mortgage markets team for seven years, and David Bleicken, the operations chief of supervision who spent nearly 14 years at the bureau primarily as deputy associate director for the former division of supervision, enforcement and fair lending.
McArdle and Bleicken served as advisors, troubleshooters and mentors, managing staff and helping political appointees of both parties implement their agendas.
The retirements come as the Trump administration appeared to be planning to
It is unclear if the CFPB will fill the vacancies. The agency didn't respond to a request for comment.
The CFPB has cut 17% of its employees under the Trump administration. By far the largest group of
About 50 workers took the "Fork in the Road,"
Many employees have been announcing their goodbyes to colleagues on LinkedIn including Kristin Bateman, assistant general counsel for litigation, who spent more than 13 years at the bureau; Lane Powell, senior litigation counsel; Tara Mikkilineni, special counsel to the enforcement director; Glenn Melcher, senior special counsel for discovery and information governance; Sherri Schornstein, enforcement training coordinator and attorney advisor; and Reid Horwitz,
Other CFPB officials who have retired or taken a buyout offered by the Trump administration include Susan Bernard, assistant director of regulations; Gabe O'Malley, deputy enforcement director for policy and strategy; Susan Singer, deputy assistant director in the Office of Research; and Jean Healey, an assistant litigation deputy in enforcement.
Despite concerns that the CFPB is being dismantled, most CFPB staff are waiting to see if the bureau resumes normal operations under Jonathan McKernan, the Trump administration's nominee who may be
"People are very, very loyal to the agency," said Richard Cordray, the bureau's first director who helped set up the agency in 2011. "They just want to do their jobs and protect consumers without all the nonsense."
The future of the CFPB could be determined by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Berman Jackson
In February, the CFPB's union sued acting Director Russell Vought — who is also the director of the Office of Management and Budget — to block mass firings at the agency.
The court hearing is likely to focus on the Trump administration's claims that firings at the CFPB are part of a normal changeover in administrations. But emails show that Mark Paoletta, the chief legal officer, planned a first round of layoffs targeting 1,175 employees that were to be fired in response to President Trump's executive order to reduce the federal workforce.
Under the Trump administration the enforcement and supervisory offices would not exist, though they are required by law. The first round of firings would have left the agency with a staff of 410, from roughly 1,750 in January. The reduction in force was planned for Feb. 14, but never happened, due to the union's lawsuit.
McArdle has been a significant presence in the mortgage industry. He helped the industry transition to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, which previously had been implemented by the Federal Reserve. He also spearheaded the emergency mortgage response during the COVID-19 pandemic, setting up a hub of mortgage and housing information for consumers.
A key success under McArdle was the once-contentious
McArdle said in an interview Friday that regulatory changes are more lasting when there is consensus and compromise between industry and consumer advocates, as there was on the QM rule.
"For me, the parts that have the magic — and where the CFPB can do the most good and change is lasting — is when you have consensus behind the decision," he said. "That makes change more resilient. You don't get sued, and you don't have someone immediately overturn it the next time you lose an election."
Bleicken spent 27 years in public service and held a number of roles at the CFPB including acting associate director of supervision, enforcement and fair lending, and as a special counsel of the former Office of Large Bank Supervision. Before the CFPB, he worked at the former State Regulatory Registry, also known as the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System, and spent 14 years at the Pennsylvania Department of Banking, where he was deputy secretary of banking for nondepository institutions and consumer services.
