WASHINGTON, D.C. — Not only are lawmakers taking an issue
with how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau conducts its regulatory
business, but some legislators now are also questioning what a former high-level bureau official
is doing now that he's back in the private sector.

Two high-ranking U.S. House members — Financial Services Committee
chairman Rep. Jeb Henserling and Government Reform Committee chairman Rep. Darrell
Issa — sent a letter to  director Richard
Cordray about concerns that senior employees have left CFPB in order to "profit
from the very rules they helped create."

The letter also was signed by three chairmen of House
Financial Services subcommittees: Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, Rep. Patrick
McHenry and Rep. Jim Jordan. Like Henserling and Issa, Moore Capito, McHenry
and Jordan also are all Republicans.

"Simply put, it appears that former CFPB employees are now
offering financial products in a market sector created by the very rules they
were in a position to influence while working in senior leadership positions at
the CFPB," the representatives said in the letter available here.

"This conduct raises serious questions about the integrity
of the CFPB's rulemaking process and the conduct of some of its most senior
former officials," the continued. "We are deeply concerned that this close
relationship between the CFPB and its former officials ultimately could harm
consumers."

While at the CFBP, former deputy director Raj Date "helped
to write a series of rules broadly affecting mortgage lending in the United
States," the lawmakers said.

Roughly a month after the CFPB's final rule on qualified
mortgages was released in January, the group indicated Date left the CFPB. Two
months later, the lawmakers pointed out Date incorporated an advisory and
investment firm focused on "those borrowers who do not meet the standards for
‘qualified mortgages' as set by the CFPB under rules."

Several other senior employees have since left CFPB to join
Date's firm, according to Henserling, Issa, Moore Capito, McHenry and Jordan.

"Although the CFPB is now 2 years old, it remains ‘something
of a mystery to many market participants as it ramps up operations.' This lack
of transparency has apparently incentivized (Raj) Date and other CFPB alumni to
create a cottage industry unique to the bureau's regulatory agenda," the
lawmakers wrote to Cordray.

Date's private consulting firm, Fenway Summer, has several former
key bureau officials, including Chris Haspel, Mitch Hochburg and former bureau
chief of staff Garry Reeder.

On its website, the firm said, "Fenway Summer is committed
to rebuilding consumer finance on a foundation of trust. For too long consumer
finance has been seen as a zero-sum game: either banks win or consumers win. At
Fenway Summer we take a different approach. Our work is guided by the principle
that products designed to actually serve consumers will be simultaneously profitable
and sustainable.

"Raj Date, the first deputy director of the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau, founded Fenway Summer alongside a team with deep
experience in the private and public sectors. We're united by a shared passion
for restoring trust to the marketplace. We do so by advising industry
participants and investing directly in groundbreaking new approaches to
consumer finance," the firm continued on its website.

In an emailed statement to Reuters, Date told the news
service that he was proud of his work in public service.

"I was part of a team that focused on carrying out
congressional intent, listened openly to lots of points of view, and tried to
create transparent rules of the road for the marketplace," Date said in this
report. "Now I'm back in the private sector, and I'm 100 percent focused on
building a great business."

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