The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Nani Coloretti – previously with the U.S. Department of the Treasury and one of the main architects of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) – as the next deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Coloretti, who is President Obama's pick to fill the post, previously served as an assistant secretary at the Treasury, where she advised the secretary on the development and execution of the department's budget, strategic plans and the internal management of the agency and its numerous bureaus.
In July 2012, President Obama appointed Coloretti as a member of the Government Accountability and Transparency Board. Following the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, Coloretti helped establish the new CFPB, serving as its acting chief operating officer. She also previously served as a policy advisor and budget director in San Francisco, where she led the development and implementation of the city's $6.2 billion annual budget.
As the second-most senior official at HUD, Coloretti will manage the department's day-to-day operations, including a $45 billion annual budget and approximately 8,500 employees.
‘[Coloretti] is a proven executive who has excelled at making government more efficient at the municipal and federal levels,’ says Julián Castro, secretary of HUD, in a statement. ‘Her breadth of experience and track record at the Treasury Department make her the ideal choice for a mission-oriented agency like HUD.’
‘I'm immensely grateful for the trust that President Obama and Secretary Castro are placing in me to help lead HUD at this critical time,’ says Coloretti. ‘This department is undergoing significant change as it works to support our nation's housing recovery and improve the way it serves communities all across this country. I'm looking forward to working with the Department's outstanding employees and continue a data-driven approach to help make HUD's operations run as efficiently as possible.’
Coloretti' work is no doubt cut out for her, as the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)/HUD continues to grapple with problems with poor loan quality, the high cost of mortgage insurance, revenue shortfalls and pressure from the Obama Administration to implement new measures to free up mortgage credit for lower-income borrowers.
During the Mortgage Bankers Association's Annual Conference and Expo held in October, Castro said HUD was looking forward to working with mortgage lenders to help free up credit for underserved borrowers by giving lenders better clarity and certainty with regard to regulations and policies.
‘It's critical that we expand opportunity to all Americans so they can strengthen their financial futures and, in turn, strengthen the housing market of the future,’ Castro said, adding that now is the time ‘to remove the stigma from promoting homeownership, and that ‘it's in our entire nation's interest to help more responsible Americans succeed in the housing market by expanding access to credit.’
‘You want to be able to manage your risk better – and so does FHA,’ he told the group of mortgage bankers.