President Donald Trump on Wednesday selected Brian Johnson, a former deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and a financial services executive, to serve as the agency's next permanent director. Johnson, who previously worked under Trump's first CFPB director Kathy Kraninger, is expected to take over the bureau for the remainder of Trump's second term, pending Senate confirmation.
Johnson's nomination comes at a time when the CFPB has been largely inactive since Trump returned to office, with acting director Russell Vought, the president's budget director, overseeing efforts to unwind much of the bureau's previous work. Vought's tenure as acting director is set to expire in August.
Before his nomination, Johnson worked at Patomak Global Partners and most recently served as a senior executive at Capital One. He has been a vocal critic of the CFPB's operations under former director Rohit Chopra, but his public statements differ from Vought's, who has called for the bureau's elimination.
In 2023 testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Johnson described the CFPB as "ripe for reform" but also stated that, if "properly structured and managed, it is capable of great good."
Lindsey Johnson, president and CEO of the Consumer Bankers Association, praised Brian Johnson's background, calling it "steeped in consumer protection policy." The two are not related.
The nomination now moves to the Senate Banking Committee, where Senator Elizabeth Warren, a longtime advocate for the CFPB, serves as the top-ranking Democrat. Warren criticized Johnson during his previous tenure as deputy director and continued to oppose his nomination, stating, "Russ Vought can no longer serve as Donald Trump's hatchet man at the CFPB.
So here comes the next hatchet man to try to finish the job."
Congress created the CFPB after the 2008 financial crisis to act as an independent regulator with broad enforcement authority over consumer financial products. Republicans have long sought to reduce the agency's power, viewing it as unaccountable to Congress.