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Elizabeth Warren has hit another hurdle on the path to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director, after a string of news reports revealed the administration is considering a former banker for the role. The buzz is that President Barack Obama and his advisers have begun to openly float Raj Date as a replacement nominee to fill the top position at the bureau. Date currently serves as a deputy under Warren and has ties to Capital One Financial and Deutsche Bank.

Obama Mulls Warren Substitute

Elizabeth Warren hit another hurdle on the path to ""Consumer Financial Protection Bureau"":http://www.consumerfinance.gov/ director Thursday, after a string of news reports revealed the Obama administration is considering a former banker for the role.

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The buzz is that President Barack Obama and his advisers have begun to openly float Raj Date as a replacement nominee to fill the top position at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Date currently serves as a deputy under Warren and has ties to Capital One Financial Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG.

""The president is considering a number of candidates for this position and no decisions have been made,"" Jen Psaki, a White House spokeswoman, told _Bloomberg News_. A CFPB official, Jennifer Howard, declined to comment on the matter.

While the story is not new ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô _Reuters_ broke the news about a shortlist for new nominees in April ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô this is the first time anyone has identified a nominee. If put forward as the new

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face for CFPB, analysts say that officials think the former banker will help soothe Republican senators anxious about Warren's anti-Wall Street background and still satisfy financial industry watchdogs.

According to _The Nation_, Date previously served as a board member for Prosper Marketplace, a peer-to-peer lending company, as well as for Demos, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C.

He also founded the Cambridge Winter Center, an economic policy research firm that calls for ""regulation that limits the potential for├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬ª catastrophic failure"" in the financial services sector, according to its Web site.

Heather McGhee, a director for Demos, called Date ""one of the most effective advocates for consumer financial protection during the debate that culminated in the Dodd-Frank Act.""

Many consider CFPB a central tenet of the Dodd-Frank Act, which establishes the consumer bureau to regulate credit and financial services, calls for strict compliance measures in derivatives markets, and stipulates ""new qualifications"":https://themreport.com/articles/mortgage-bankers-praises-dodd-frank-comment-extension-2011-06-08 for lenders with securitization services for high-risk mortgage loans.

With 44 Republican senators vowing to stall the confirmation process for any CFPB nominee, as reported by Bloomberg News, others wonder whether a replacement like Date will receive the votes needed to head up the consumer bureau by July 21, when the agency launches formal operations.

Warren would know ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô the Obama adviser and former Harvard professor is set to face her ""third hearing"":https://themreport.com/articles/due-date-set-for-warren-face-off-with-gop-2011-06-07 before the Senate in July.

About Author: Ryan Schuette

Ryan Schuette is a journalist, cartoonist, and social entrepreneur with several years of experience in real-estate news, international reporting, and business management. He currently lives in the Washington, D.C., area, where he freelances for DS News and MReport.
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