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Steven T. Mnuchin

Official · Treasury

PPP
Type
Person
Role
Official · Treasury
Programs
PPP
Updated
  • Pandemic-program role: Treasury Secretary holding the statutory CARES Act Title IV / Exchange Stabilization Fund authority ($500B) over Federal Reserve emergency-lending backstops and direct airline/national-security loans; co-owner of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) with SBA.
  • Institution · office: Treasury · Office of the Secretary · Type: political(PAS)
  • Tenure (relief-relevant): Sworn in Feb 13, 2017 (Treasury biography); served through January 2021, covering the entire CARES Act build-out (March–December 2020).

The job (role mechanics)

  • Level / appointment: PAS, Senate-confirmed (sworn in Feb 13, 2017 per the Treasury biography). Executive Schedule Level I (EX-I).
  • Reports to: The President (Donald J. Trump, first term).
  • Core responsibility: Head of the U.S. Department of the Treasury; principal economic adviser to the President; steward of the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF); co-administrator (with SBA) of the CARES Act small-business and emergency-lending programs.
  • Pay: Executive Schedule Level I = $221,400 (2021), per the OPM 2021-EX table and 5 U.S.C. 5312.
  • Expectations / mandate: Under CARES Act Title IV (Pub. L. 116-136), every ESF equity investment seeding the Fed's Section 13(3) facilities (PMCCF, SMCCF, MLF, MSLP, TALF) and each direct airline/national-security loan required the Secretary's personal approval. With SBA, jointly responsible for PPP design and rulemaking.
  • Tenure norm: Serves at the pleasure of the President (political appointee); he served from Feb 13, 2017 to the Jan 20, 2021 transition, all but the first three weeks of the Trump I administration.

Who they are

Steven Terner Mnuchin is a former investment banker, regional-bank owner and film financier who became the 77th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury (Treasury biography). Career details below are from the Treasury biography unless marked as from the Wikipedia entry (secondary). As Treasury Secretary he was the Trump administration's lead negotiator on the 2020 CARES Act and the official wielding its $500B emergency-lending authority.

Education

  • B.A., Yale University (Treasury biography); economics, 1985 (Wikipedia, secondary).

Career before

  • Goldman Sachs, 1985–2002 (~17 years), rising to partner and eventually Chief Information Officer; his father was a senior Goldman partner.
  • Hedge-fund and investment ventures after Goldman, including ties to Dune Capital Management.
  • Founded OneWest Bank Group LLC and served as its Chairman and CEO (Treasury biography); the bank was formed from the failed IndyMac and later sold to CIT Group (Wikipedia, secondary).
  • Film financier through RatPac-Dune Entertainment (Wikipedia, secondary).
  • Finance chairman of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Role in the pandemic relief programs

  • Held the CARES Act Title IV / ESF authority: ~$454B to backstop Federal Reserve 13(3) facilities plus ~$46B for direct loans to airlines and national-security businesses. CRS: "The Treasury Secretary approved the creation of each facility" (R46329).
  • Co-owned the Paycheck Protection Program with SBA. Note: the first PPP Interim Final Rule (Apr 2020, 85 FR 20811) was SBA-only, signed by Administrator Jovita Carranza, with no Treasury signature; Treasury PPP co-signatures came later: Jan 14, 2021 by Michael Faulkender (86 FR 3692, FR Doc. 2021-00451); Feb 5, 2021 by Andy P. Baukol (86 FR 8283, FR Doc. 2021-02314).
  • Made the Nov 19, 2020 decision to let the CARES-funded Fed facilities expire Dec 31, 2020 and to ask the Fed to return unused funds (letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell; Treasury press release sm1190).

Documents written or signed

  • CARES Act facility-expiration / fund-return letter to the Federal Reserve, Nov 19, 2020 (Treasury press release sm1190).
  • Numerous Treasury term sheets and approvals authorizing the Fed emergency facilities and Treasury's direct airline/national-security loan program (2020). (PPP IFRs themselves were initially SBA-signed; see above.)

Career after / where they are now

  • Founded Liberty Strategic Capital, a private-equity firm, after leaving office (Wikipedia, secondary; NYCB/Flagstar release).
  • On March 7, 2024, Liberty Strategic Capital anchored an equity investment of over $1 billion in New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) / Flagstar, with Liberty investing $450 million; Mnuchin and former Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting joined the NYCB board, with Otting becoming CEO (NYCB release).

Sources held in this archive

Original source documents and archived captures

Sources (first-party)

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