Tom Dresslar, the Deputy Commissioner for Policy and Planning at the California Department of Business Oversight, California’s state bank regulator, has retired. Mr. Dresslar joined the DBO in late 2014 after a long career in California state government and, before that, as the Sacramento Bureau Chief for the Daily Journal, Los Angeles’s daily legal newspaper. In the consumer financial services world, he is perhaps best known as the leader of the DBO’s 2015 marketplace lending inquiry. That inquiry resulted not only in the publication of marketplace lending data, but also in an ongoing attempt by the DBO to expand significantly California’s licensing requirements for providing loan-related marketing assistance. We wish Mr. Dresslar well.
It is not clear who, if anyone, will take on Mr. Dresslar’s role at the Department. We understand that Jim Sweeney has replaced Mr. Dresslar in his “planning” role, but not in the job of driving future DBO policy. Given the DBO’s involvement in opposing the OCC’s proposed fintech charter and supporting efforts to streamline state licensing in response to industry concerns, among other things, we will follow this succession issue closely.