Governor Gavin Newsom announced the appointment of Manuel Alvarez as commissioner of the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) on March 28, 2019. If confirmed, Alvarez will take the reins from Commissioner Jan Lynn Owen. Alvarez is a former enforcement attorney with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), where he worked from its inception in 2011 until 2014. Before that, Alvarez was a deputy attorney general at the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General, for a year, and an associate at a multinational law firm from 2007 to 2010. Most recently, Alvarez served as general counsel, chief compliance officer, and corporate secretary of Affirm Inc.