Newsroom

February 14, 2012

Bureau FTEs to exceed 1,300 in 2013

Operating expenses for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are expected to wind up at $346,374 in fiscal 2012 and will grow to $447,688 in fiscal 2013, according to data submitted for a congressional hearing today with CFPB Director Richard Cordray.

Cordray is set to testify in a hearing this morning of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations to discuss the bureau's budget over the next cycle. Cordray, in an 88-page submitted witness statement, reports CFPB full-time equivalent positions totaling 942 this year and rising to 1,359 in 2013.

The bureau's staff are allocated among three programs: supervision, enforcement, and fair lending and equal opportunity (873 FTEs in 2013); consumer education and engagement/consumer response (345 FTEs in 2013); and research, markets and regulations (141 FTEs in 2013).

Under the Dodd-Frank Act, the bureau receives a mandatory transfer of funding from the Federal Reserve System in an amount deemed appropriate by the CFPB director, subject to statutory limits.

The law also allows the CFPB to request up to $200 million in discretionary appropriations in each fiscal year through 2014 if the Fed transfer is insufficient, the testimony states. This request would be subject to the congressional appropriations process.