The former CEO of a payday lender sent in an email with her application to be the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
And while the former CEO of a payday lender may seem like the least qualified fit to lead the CFPB, the situation gets worse. As it turns out, her former company, World Acceptance, was investigated by the CFPB under former director Richard Cordray.
And while the investigation was completed without enforcement action, again, it may not be the best reference point for a CFPB director candidate.
However that’s exactly what the former CEO Janet Matricciani did in her email to Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, according to reports from the Associated Press. Two days after resigning from her 2.5-year stint as CEO, Matricciani pitched herself as the CFPB’s next director.
From the email, according to the AP’s report:
"I would love to apply for the position of director of the CFPB. Who better than me understand the need to treat consumers respectfully and honestly, and the equal need to offer credit to lower income consumers in order to help them manage their daily lives?" Matricciani wrote to Mulvaney. She attached her resume to the email.
In fact, Matricciani even went so far as to use the CFPB’s investigation into her company as a prerequisite to her leading the bureau, saying “I have indepth experience of what a CFPB investigation is like, and so I am in an unparalleled position to understand the effect of various CFPB actions on a company, its workforce, its customers and the industry.”
On first consideration one might think this application was sent in as a joke, but considering the recent actions made in favor of payday lenders, one can’t help but wonder if Matricciani really did feel she would be considered as the bureau’s next director.
While President Donald Trump has yet to choose a permanent director for the CFPB, the administration responded that Matricciani is not being considered for any jobs at the CFPB.
