As two Biden-era appointees leading bank watchdogs continue to show up to work, some Donald Trump supporters are questioning why the president hasn’t put forward nominees to lead the agencies, or at a minimum fire the current heads.

Trump’s team has struggled to make selections to replace the leaders of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, according to people familiar with the matter.

In the meantime, Biden appointees Rohit Chopra, who heads the CFPB, and Michael Hsu, who leads the OCC, have continued to serve in their current roles despite calls from some Trump allies to overhaul agencies.

The challenge to pick nominees who will play a key role in shaping policy for Wall Street’s biggest lenders stems from internal disagreements among two factions within the Trump camp, the people said.

A White House spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some Republicans want to see a consumer watchdog who might take charge of the CFPB and use its mandate to push an agenda that might include protecting everyday Americans from debanking and potential abuses from lending giants.

Others want to eliminate the agency, which has been a political lightning rod since its creation following the 2008 global financial crisis, on the grounds that it lacks accountability and may be duplicative in its mission. The CFPB has been reviled by some Republicans and business groups who claim the agency lacks accountability, while Democrats have touted it as a necessary check on corporate power and a guardian of ordinary Americans.

Chopra, in the meantime, has packed up his office but continued to bike into work this week, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“I’m ready to hand off the baton whenever, and I’m just going to keep serving until I have that someone to hand it off to,” Chopra said Friday in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “The Close.”

The row over who should be head of the OCC is more straightforward. The people said there is less fundamental debate over who might lead that agency, but the timing around when that official is named hinges on a key Senate vote for U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee Scott Bessent, which may take place over the weekend.

One person said, however, that Bessent was still conducting staff interviews, including for the OCC job, as of this week.

In addition to these nominees leading two regulatory agencies, they will also serve on the board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which must include the heads of the CFPB and the OCC. No more than three of the five members can be from the same political party.

Supreme Court Decision

Trump should have been able to quickly fire Chopra due to a 2020 Supreme Court decision that made the CFPB director an at-will employee without the same protection as the leaders of some other financial regulators. The chiefs of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the OCC are also vulnerable.

Asked about resigning in December, Chopra said he serves for a five-year term and the president can remove him at any time. He also continued rulemaking post-election despite requests to halt any until after Trump’s inauguration.

“I don’t think it makes sense for the CFPB to be a dead fish,” Chopra told lawmakers at the time.

In 2021, former President Joe Biden requested the resignation of Trump’s pick to lead the agency, Kathy Kraninger. She submitted it shortly after Biden was sworn into office.

(With assistance from Paige Smith and Stephanie Lai.)

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