First head of Financial Protection Bureau will leave by month’s end
The first director of the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is stepping down, paving the way for President Trump to name a replacement and possibly scale back the scope of an agency considered a bane of Wall Street.
Richard Cordray yesterday informed his staff that he would leave the CFPB by month’s end, before his fiveyear term ends next July. He is expected to run for governor of Ohio next year.
Former President Barack Obama established the CFPB after the 2008 financial crisis. Cordray has been a bulwark against Trump’s and congressional Republicans’ efforts to roll back Obama-era financial policy. The CFPB has imposed steep penalties on banks, auto dealers, student lenders and credit card companies.
Potential Trump candidates for the position include former U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas) and Todd Zywicki, a scholar at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center.
Bay State U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is credited with conceiving and setting up the CFPB, said Cordray “forced the biggest financial institutions to return $12 billion directly to the people they cheated.”
“The new director ... must be someone with a track record of protecting consumers and holding financial firms responsible when they cheat people,” she said. “This is no place for another Trump-appointed industry hack.”