Tom Pahl to be Named Deputy Director of the CFPB

Tom Pahl, who currently serves as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) Policy Associate Director, will be named Deputy Director of the Bureau, according to American Banker. As Deputy Director, Pahl will be Director Kathleen Kraninger's right hand, holding the number 2 position in the Bureau. The Deputy Director role became vacant when its most recent holder, Brian Johnson, left the CFPB to go into private practice at a law firm earlier this year.

Pahl has a long history as a regulator both at the CFPB and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Pahl served at the FTC in a number of different roles from 1998-2013, when he was recruited to the CFPB to work on a debt collection rule. Following the release of the Outline of Proposals Under Consideration in advance of the Small Business Review Panel (SBREFA) for Debt Collector and Debt Buyer Rulemaking, he left the CFPB in August 2016 and worked briefly as a partner at Arnall Golden Gregory LLP.

In February 2017 Acting Federal Trade Commission Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen, a Trump appointee and advocate of "regulatory humility," named Pahl Acting Director FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection. In 2018, President Trump announced that he had nominated Ohlhausen to be a judge on the United States Court of Federal Claims, which meant that Pahl would likely be replaced by someone chosen by an incoming FTC Chairman. Pahl then returned to the CFPB as the Policy Associate Director.