Consumer bureau boss to exit early

NEW YORK — Richard Cordray, the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said Wednesday that he will leave the agency by the end of the month.

Cordray was a holdover from President Barack Obama’s administration, appointed to his position in 2013 for a five-year term. His early resignation will give President Donald Trump a chance to appoint his own leader of the powerful agency, someone who could roll back the protections Cordray and his staff put into place in the agency’s first years.

Cordray’s resignation is not unexpected. The Ohio native had been widely expected to make a run for governor of his home state in 2018 as a Democrat. He could not hold his position as director of the bureau

and run at the same time.

“It has been a joy of my life to have the opportunity to serve our country as the first director of the Consumer Bureau,” Cordray said in a memo addressed to agency employees. He did not give a reason for his resignation.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created as part of the laws passed after the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession. The agency was given a broad mandate to be a watchdog for consumers when they deal with banks, and credit-card, student-loan and mortgage companies, as well as debt collectors and payday lenders. Nearly every American who deals with banks or a credit card company or mortgage has been affected by new rules the agency put in place.

The bureau gets its funding from the Federal Reserve and its director is given significant leverage to go after what he considers important and cannot be removed

from the position except for wrongdoing.

Republicans had become increasingly exasperated that Cordray, whose term does not end until next summer, had not stepped down and that the agency continued to issue aggressive rules disliked by the business community.

With Cordray’s departure, the regulatory structure put in place by the Obama administration in the wake of the global financial crisis has been nearly entirely replaced. The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission has been replaced by a former Wall Street lawyer, and the Senate is moving to approve Trump’s pick to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, another important banking regulator. The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Martin Gruenberg, has said he will step down at the end of the month.

While Cordray was able to implement many new regulations on banks, credit-card companies and debt collectors, he also lost some notable battles. The GOP-led Congress recently overturned a new bureau regulation that would have allowed banking customers to band together to sue their banks in a classaction lawsuit. Another rule, aimed at regulating the payday lending industry, also faces a potential veto from Congress.

Cordray was not Obama’s first choice for the newly created agency. That person was now Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who had proposed the agency in her previous job at Harvard Law School. But Warren, an outspoken critic of Wall Street, never made it through Senate confirmation.

“[Cordray] is a dedicated public servant and a tireless watchdog for American consumers — and he will be missed,” Warren said in a statement.

Based on Trump’s previous appointments, his choice is likely to be far friendlier to

the financial industry than Cordray. A White House spokesman said Trump will choose a successor for Cordray “at the appropriate time.”

Cordray