President Donald Trump nominated former FDIC Board Member Jonathan McKernan to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Jonathan Gould to be comptroller of the currency.
Trump’s Feb. 11 nomination of McKernan came a couple days after Acting Director Russell Vought ordered the bureau to stop working. The CFPB’s homepage has added an error message to its home page.
McKernan, who joined the FDIC board in 2023, co-chaired a special FDIC committee looking into allegations of sexual harassment and professional misconduct. He stepped down from the board on Feb. 10.
McKernan was a counsel to former Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. He’s also been senior counsel at the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Before he joined the government, McKernan was a private attorney focusing on banking and consumer financial laws.
Gould, former senior deputy comptroller and chief counsel at the OCC from 2018-21, most recently served as a partner at Washington, D.C.-based law firm Jones Day.
Consumer Bankers Association President and CEO Lindsey Johnson expressed optimism that McKernan will undo regulations issued under previous Director Rohit Chopra.
“McKernan’s experiences as a former FDIC board member, counsel to lawmakers, and attorney focused on consumer finance and banking highlight his qualifications to lead the bureau at a critical time,” Johnson said. “We are confident McKernan understands the importance of working collaboratively with industry on behalf of the millions of consumers we both industry and government serve.”
American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols said Gould’s experience at the OCC, including his time as a Senate Banking Committee staffer and financial regulatory attorney, “will serve him well as the agency continues its important mission to promote a resilient and healthy national banking system.
“We look forward to working with Gould to put in place a rational regulatory framework that ensures banks can continue to meet the needs of their customers, clients and communities,” Nichols added.