CFPB Says It Sidelined Diversity Chief Over Report Filing Snafu

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said it put the director of its diversity office on administrative leave last month because she caused the agency to mistakenly post an unapproved draft version of its annual diversity report that didn’t match one it sent to Congress.

Stacie Jones, the director of the CFPB’s Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, provided her staff with the wrong version of the report and directed them to post it while she was on vacation, a top CFPB attorney said in a Feb. 4 letter to the House Financial Services Committee’s Democratic staff first obtained by Bloomberg Law.

The discrepancy was due to a clerical mistake and was fixed within an hour after Jones’ deputy discovered it, according to multiple people with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters and questioned the need for formal discipline.

The CFPB put Jones on administrative leave when she returned from vacation Jan. 12 and admitted she had provided the wrong version of the report for publication, Chief Legal Officer Mark Paoletta said in the agency’s letter to Democratic staff. She returned to work Jan. 23 after receiving a formal reprimand for negligence, Paoletta said.

The OMWI, mandated by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, is required to provide an annual report to Congress each year on diversity and inclusion efforts at banks and other financial institutions as well as the CFPB’s use of minority- and women-owned businesses.

The main discrepancy between the two versions of the latest report is that the one mistakenly posted online Dec. 29 omitted an introduction stating “current leadership of the Bureau, under Acting Director Vought, has concerns regarding certain aspects of this reporting” following the US Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellow of Harvard College decision eliminating affirmative action in college admissions.

The dispute over the diversity report comes as the CFPB under acting Director Russell Vought is also moving to roll back the agency’s efforts to root out unintended discrimination in lending.

Jones declined to comment. The CFPB didn’t respond to additional questions. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Waters had also raised concerns about the OMWI’s operations while its director was on leave.

The CFPB temporarily put Jones’ deputy in charge of the unit and the office currently has 14 staff members in place, Paoletta’s letter said.

OMWI staff contributed to a separate CFPB semiannual report and conducted other work for the agency, he said.

“Contrary to the intimations in your request, the CFPB was fully in compliance with its statutory obligations,” Paoletta said.