Who’s Who at the Helm of Federal Banking Regulatory Agencies?
Newly inaugurated President Trump signed his first batch of Executive Orders on January 20, 2025. Among them was an Executive Order that included a regulatory freeze, blocking all regulatory agencies from proposing or issuing any rules until they are reviewed and approved by a Trump-appointed executive. We have started to see those Trump-appointed executives take their places across the financial regulatory agencies and expect them to reshape banking regulations over the next four years. Who’s who at the helm, and what do we know about their priorities?
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
Trying to keep up with who is leading the CFPB is like trying to follow the classic Abbott and Costello comedy sketch – Who’s on First? “I Don’t Know” is playing third base, and we are spending some time on third base when tracking all of the changes at the CFPB.
After leaving former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra in place for a couple of weeks, President Trump quickly made three successive changes. Initially, on January 31, 2025, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent was appointed as Acting Director of the CFPB. The following week, on February 7, 2025, President Trump named newly confirmed Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Russell Vought, as the Acting Director of the CFPB, replacing Bessent. As of February 12, 2025, the White House has nominated Jonathan McKernan to lead the CFPB as the new Director. Therefore, Acting Director Vought will be in place pending McKernan’s approval by the Senate.
Vought previously served as Deputy Director and Acting Director of the OMB prior to his confirmation as Director of the OMB in July 2020 during the first Trump presidency. In his current role once again as Director of the OMB, he is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the President’s policy, management and regulatory agendas across the Executive Branch.
Prior to serving in the Trump Administration, Director Vought spent over 20 years working in Washington, DC with grassroots and public policy organizations. He is well-known for his work at Heritage Action for America and was a key advisor to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which called for the CFPB to be eliminated (which would take an Act of Congress) or at least reshaped.
Jonathan McKernan recently resigned from the FDIC’s Board just a few days before this nomination to lead the OCC, and had served at the FDIC since January 2023. He would bring substantial banking experience and insight to the CFPB position, if approved by the Senate.
McKernan previously served as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee under Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), and before that was Senior Counsel at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA.) McKernan has also served as a Treasury Department Adviser and Senior Financial Policy Advisor to Senator Corker (R-TN) and worked in the private sector at WilmerHale and Hogan Lovells law firms.
Federal Reserve Board (FRB)
On January 6, 2025, Michael Barr announced that he will step down from his position as the Federal Reserve Board Vice Chair for Supervision, effective February 28, 2025. His replacement has not yet been announced. Barr will remain on the Fed’s Board of Governors but will not complete his term as Vice Chair, which started on July 19, 2022, and was originally set to run until July 2026.
A potential replacement could come from current Fed governors Michelle Bowman or Christopher Waller, both of whom were appointed during Trump’s first term. We will need to wait for a formal decision by President Trump.
Office of the Controller Currency (OCC)
The U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the appointment of Rodney E. Hood as Acting Comptroller of the Currency, effective February 10, 2025. Hood succeeds Acting Comptroller Michael J. Hsu, who had served in the role since May 10, 2021. On February 12, 2025, the White House named Jonathan Gould to lead the OCC, pending Senate confirmation. (That’s right – Jonathan McKernan at the CFPB, and another Jonathan at the OCC.)
Hood was previously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 2005 and again in 2019 to serve on the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Board. Hood gained the distinction of being the first African American to lead a federal banking regulatory agency when President Trump designated him as Chairman of the NCUA Board in 2019. While at the NCUA, Hood also served as a voting member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, as the NeighborWorks America Board Chairman, and as Vice Chairman of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. He has also served on the Boards of technology companies such as Zest AI, Posh, DefenseStorm and ModernFi.
Before public service, Mr. Hood held senior roles in retail finance, commercial banking, affordable housing, and community development in the private sector. In his younger days, Hood spent time as a missionary in Africa. Hood is an outspoken and steadfast proponent for financial inclusion, which he has called the “civil rights issue of our generation.”
Pending Senate confirmation, nominee Jonathan Gould would bring substantial financial industry experience to the OCC Comptroller position. He most recently worked as a partner at the law firm Jones Day. He has also worked at Bitfury as Chief Legal Officer. (Bitfury is a blockchain technology company.)
During President Trump’s first term, Gould served at the OCC as Senior Deputy and Chief Counsel for two years, and one year as Chief Counsel for the Senate Banking Committee advising Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID.)
Gould also brings private sector experience in risk management and regulatory consulting across the financial services and technology industries, having served in consulting roles at BlackRock and IBM’s Promontory Financial Group. Earlier in his career, he served as Counsel to the Senate Banking Committee, advising Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL.) Gould started his legal career at Alston & Bird.
During his time as the OCC’s Chief Legal Officer, Gould opened the national banking system to innovation through modernizing the bank chartering process and issuing legal opinions on stablecoins and cryptocurrency custody. Under his direction, the OCC chartered the first fintech and crypto banks, recognized crypto-related activities as permissible, and brought the largest enforcement actions in agency history. Gould also directed the most significant overhaul of the national bank regulatory framework since the Dodd-Frank Act, including implementation of the Economic Growth Act, and reorganized the OCC’s legal and licensing department to drive innovation, mobility and accountability.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
Travis Hill was appointed as the Acting Chairman of the FDIC Board of Directors on January 20, 2025. Hill has worked at the FDIC since 2018. He has been Vice Chairman since January 5, 2023, and his prior roles included Deputy to the Chairman for Policy and Senior Advisor to the Chairman. In these roles, among other responsibilities, he oversaw and coordinated regulatory and policy initiatives at the agency and advised the FDIC Chairman on regulatory and policy matters.
Prior to joining the FDIC, Hill served as Senior Counsel at the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where he worked from 2013 to 2018. In this role, he participated extensively in the drafting and negotiating of numerous bipartisan bills. Before working at the Senate, Hill worked as a policy analyst at Regions Financial Corporation from 2011 to 2013.
Acting Chairman Hill recently provided a Statement outlining 15 priorities for his tenure. These include conducting a comprehensive review of all regulations, guidance and manuals; encouraging de novo activity and improving bank merger approvals, adopting a more open-minded approach to innovation and technology, and modernizing the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA.) He has also stated that the FDIC is “actively reevaluating our approach to crypto-related activities.”
National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)
President Trump designated Kyle S. Hauptman to be the Chairman of the NCUA Board on January 20, 2025, replacing former chair Todd Harper. Hauptman had previously served as Vice Chairman of the NCUA since December 18, 2020.
Before joining the NCUA Board, Hauptman served as Senator Tom Cotton’s (R-AR) advisor on economic policy, as well as Staff Director of the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Policy. Hauptman also served on President Trump’s transition team in 2016.
Previously, Hauptman was Senior Vice President at Jefferies & Co. He worked at Lehman Brothers as a bond trader in New York City as well as in their international offices in Tokyo and Sydney and served as a voting member on the U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies.
Chairman Hauptman outlined several key priorities for the NCUA, including re-examining the NCUA budgeting process and identifying internal efficiencies; promoting the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), codifying procedures to prevent regulation-by-enforcement, removing barriers to financial inclusion while re-assessing policies affecting low-income areas, and right-sizing obligations under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA.)
These newly appointed leaders have extensive experience in the financial sector and bring a distinctly different point-of-view from what we experienced under the prior administration. We can expect significant changes as they move to further President Trump’s agenda and priorities over the next four years.
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