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| Jonathan McKernan |
President Donald Trump will pull Jonathan McKernan’s nomination to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and tap him instead for a top domestic finance job at the U.S. Treasury Department, a White House official confirmed to Law360 on Friday.
The switch, which would line up McKernan for a possible role as undersecretary of domestic finance at the Treasury Department rather than CFPB director, comes amid the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to dramatically shrink the CFPB and curtail its activity.
The Treasury Department was first to announce the new nomination for McKernan in a Friday afternoon statement, but it did not address the status of his candidacy for the CFPB. A White House official later told Law360 that his CFPB nomination will be rescinded.
No new candidate for CFPB director has been named, and it was not immediately clear who is being considered as a replacement. For now, the CFPB remains under the leadership of Trump’s budget chief, Russell Vought, who is functioning as its acting director.
McKernan, a Republican former bank regulator, was originally nominated for CFPB director in February. He has been serving as an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent while waiting for a confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate, the Treasury Department said.
“During that time, McKernan has become an integral part of the secretary’s senior team,” the department said in its Friday statement. “His continued service at Treasury will ensure that his experience and expertise are best put to advancing the president’s America First agenda.”
As the domestic finance undersecretary, McKernan would have broad responsibilities for overseeing federal fiscal policy, managing public debt, and coordinating initiatives on financial institutions and markets. The job, which Nellie Liang held in the Biden administration, requires Senate confirmation.
Until Friday, McKernan had been widely considered to be on track for confirmation to the CFPB. Last month, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., predicted at a banking industry gathering that he would be confirmed by “probably early May.”
McKernan was previously one of President Joe Biden’s appointees to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., serving on its board from 2023 until earlier this year. He has also been a Senate staff attorney and policy adviser, having started his legal career at Hogan Lovells and later WilmerHale.
–Editing by Amy French.
Update: This story has been updated to reflect new developments.