Consumer agency chief to step down

WASHINGTON >> Richard Cordray, one of the few remaining Obama-era banking regulators, said on Wednesday that he plans to step down as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by the end of the month, clearing the way for President Donald Trump to remake a watchdog agency loathed by Republicans and Wall Street.

Cordray’s turbulent six-year tenure at the 1,600-person agency was marked by aggressive efforts to rein in banks, payday lenders and debt collectors that often drew protests from the business community. His frequent clashes with conservatives turned Cordray, an otherwise ordinary Washington bureaucrat from Ohio, into a favorite of Democrats and consumer groups and a villain to Republicans and the financial industry. A federal judge once said that Cordray had “more unilateral authority than any other officer in any of the three branches of the U.S. government, other than the president.”

“It has been a joy of my life to have the opportunity to serve our country as the first director of the Consumer Bureau by working alongside all of you here,” Cordray said in a message to employees. “I trust that new leadership will see that value also and work to preserve it — perhaps in different ways than before, but desiring, as I have done, to serve in ways that benefit and strengthen our economy and our country.”

Republicans had become increasingly exasperated that Cordray, whose term does not end until next summer, had not stepped aside when Trump took office, and instead continued to press for aggressive rules disliked by the business community. Trump has on at least two occasions griped about Cordray in private and wondered what to do about his tenure, according to two financial industry executives who attended the meetings. Under the agency’s current structure, Trump could only fire Cordray for cause.

Cordray did not explain the timing of his decision.