WASHINGTON — Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director and acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has picked a deputy at the budget office, Kathy Kraninger, to succeed him at the consumer watchdog agency, a White House spokeswoman confirmed on Saturday.

The choice of Ms. Kraninger, who oversees the preparation of the budgets for cabinet departments, generated immediate opposition, with critics pointing to her inexperience in consumer and financial services issues and her association with Mr. Mulvaney. She was selected over the objection of some White House officials, who argued that her nomination could founder.

“The president intends to nominate Kathy Kraninger” as the new head of the consumer bureau, which was created under the Obama administration to curb abuses by banks, the payday lending industry and other financial services companies, Lindsay Walters, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement. Word of Ms. Kraninger’s likely appointment was first reported on Friday.

On Saturday, White House officials played down the fact that she has never held a job as a regulator or worked in the financial services industry. “She will bring a fresh perspective and much-needed management experience” to the agency, Ms. Walters said, “which has been plagued by excessive spending, dysfunctional operations, and politicized agendas.” The Trump administration has criticized the consumer bureau’s aggressive regulatory posture under its Obama-appointed director, Richard Cordray.