The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced Steve Antonakes will serve as acting deputy director while the agency continues its search for a replacement for departing Deputy Director Raj Date. Date’s last day at the bureau was Jan. 31. As Antonakes assumes this temporary role, he will maintain responsibility for his current duties as the associate director for Supervision, Enforcement and Fair Lending at the CFPB.
“We will be forever grateful to Deputy Director Raj Date for his tremendous work to protect American consumers. As the CFPB’s first deputy director, Raj has helped to lead the agency’s organizational, strategic, and policy efforts and put in place key new mortgage rules that will benefit all Americans,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “Although we will miss Raj, he has helped to build a strong, talented team and I am pleased that Steve will be taking on the role of acting deputy director. Steve’s knowledge, expertise, and judgment will continue to be invaluable as we move forward with our important work –making markets work for consumers and responsible businesses.”
Date served as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s first deputy director. He spent more than two years helping to build the agency, playing a number of key leadership roles within the Bureau, including as the special advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury and as the associate director for Research, Markets and Regulations.
Date has had a long and varied career in and around U.S. financial institutions — as a strategy consultant, as a bank executive, and on Wall Street. In 2009, Date founded and served as chairman and executive director of the Cambridge Winter Center for Financial Institutions Policy, a private, non-profit research and policy organization that supported reform of the U.S. financial system. He was previously a managing director in the Financial Institutions Group at Deutsche Bank Securities, where he led the firm’s investment banking coverage for the largest U.S.-based banks and thrifts. Before that, Date was senior vice president for Corporate Strategy and Development at Capital One Financial, where he led mergers and acquisitions development efforts across the U.S. banking and specialty finance markets.
Date began his business career in the financial institutions practice of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Date has also served as an attorney, in both private and government practice. Date was a Chancellor’s Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley, and graduated magna cum laude from the Harvard Law School.
Antonakes’ background includes more than two decades as a financial services regulator. He first joined the CFPB in November 2010 as the assistant director of Large Bank Supervision and was named the associate director for Supervision, Enforcement, and Fair Lending in June 2012. Antonakes began his professional career as an entry level bank examiner with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Division of Banks in 1990. He served in numerous managerial capacities before being appointed by successive Governors to serve as the commissioner of banks from December 2003 until November 2010, becoming only the second career bank examiner to ever serve in that capacity. In addition, he served as the first state voting member of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), as the vice chairman of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), and as a founding member of the governing board of the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS). Antonakes also received NeighborWorks America’s Government Service Award for his work in combatting foreclosures in March 2007.
Antonakes received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Penn State University, a Masters of Business Administration from Salem State University, and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Law and Public Policy from Northeastern University.