U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren has accused Mick Mulvaney ofwaging war on consumers by transforming an aggressive financialregulator into an industry lapdog.

She's not wrong that he's been proactive. Since taking over theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau in November, Mulvaney hasdropped investigations into payday lenders,pledged to soften rules and even unveiled a new eagle-emblazonedseal.

But in a surprising twist, it turns out the effort to overhaulthe seal was actually initiated by Richard Corday, the BarackObama-appointed CFPB director who has earned endless praise fromWarren and scorn from Republicans. And the seal that Cordray hadsettled on before he resigned to run for governor of Ohio is verysimilar to Mulvaney's selection, according to internal CFPB emailsobtained by Bloomberg News through a Freedom of Information Actrequest.

After President Donald Trump named Mulvaney the CFPB's actingdirector, he started the process over — kind of. The three sample sealsCordray chose from — Seals A, B and C — all used the name ConsumerFinancial Protection Bureau.

Mulvaney's staff added a Seal D sample to reflect the fact thathe is hellbent on getting everyone to refer to the CFPB by the nameit was given in its Dodd-Frank designation: the Bureau of ConsumerFinancial Protection. Mulvaney picked D.

Mulvaney's team had already been trying to shift the name andhad taken to calling the place the bureau, rather than CFPB. BrianJohnson — a senior adviser hired from the Republican staff of theHouse Financial Services Committee — said in an email that it's“important for us to abide by statute” which used the “bureau”version.

But Emma Doyle, the chief of staff of the Office of Managementand Budget that Mulvaney runs in his permanent job, pointed out theproblem: “The 'CFPB' name is on the website, our stationery,several buildings, previous press releases, pending litigation,etc.”

Doyle advised that the agency would “risk looking like wehaven't thought this through” if it executed the name change andnew seal without a coordinated strategy. But that strategy wasn'tso apparent when the changes started emerging.

The seal was announced in a March blog entry on the agencywebsite. Its eagle-and-shield display “roots the bureau inAmerica's founding documents, combining national symbols with thebureau's values and mission in a traditional presentation,”according to emails.

On April 4, an email from then-Deputy Chief of Staff Kate Fultonexplained that the agency “will be gradually using the seal andcorrect statutory name in more official documents,” and she saidthat “in order to avoid confusion, the bureau can continue to usethe logo and the full name 'Consumer Financial Protection Bureau'in all other matters.”

She added, that “whenever possible” people should use “bureau”instead of “CFPB.”

Then in an April 11 hearing of the House Financial ServicesCommittee, where Mulvaney was once a member, he began publiclyundermining the CFPB name.

“I don't know why we call it the CFPB, but that is not the nameof the organization,” he said.

After that, the regulator's press releases adopted the statutoryname, though the website still uses the longtime CFPB logo.

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