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At last, a nominee – but still no director in sight.
On July 18, just days before the CFPB officially opened for business, President Obama nominated former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to lead the Bureau.
Industry experts have not been shy about sharing input with the CFPB about their proposed new combined Truth in Lending/RESPA mortgage disclosure form.
Round 1 (which included the Ficus and Pecan forms) drew some 13,000 responses. The CFPB analyzed where the responses came from by ZIP code and generated a heat map to measure where users clicked on the forms the most.
Given that only a basic CFPB organizational chart – without names – exists on the agency’s web site, CFPB Journal did some digging to offer a more thorough look at the other leaders and staff members who will shape the bureau going forward.
President Obama is nominating Richard Cordray to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Cordray, currently the lead enforcement officer at the CFPB, is a former attorney general for the State of Ohio and he has a reputation as a fierce enforcer of the law against lenders. As A.G., he filed lawsuits against GMAC Mortgage, Merrill Lynch, and loan servicers.
“Starting on July 21, we will be a cop on the beat — examining banks and protecting consumers,” said Elizabeth Warren, Harvard professor and special adviser to the Treasury Secretary, in a July 12 Treasury Department press release.
As acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Warren outlined the agency’s big bank supervision approach beginning July 21.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed mortgage forms are generating just as many comments as they are kudos – from individual lenders, industry trade associations, consumer groups, vendors, and the many others they will impact.
President Obama has nominated S. Roy Woodall, who recently retired from the Treasury Department as a senior policy analyst, to serve on the Federal Stability Oversight Council (FSOC). Woodall is also a former insurance commissioner for Kentucky and an insurance consultant for the Congressional Research Service.
A little over a week remains for the financial services industry to comment on the “Identification of Enforceable Rules and Orders” that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published in the Federal Register on May 31. Comments are due June 30.
Consumer protection advocate lends an ear to earn tentative support from community bankers.
In early May, a group of 44 Republican senators sent a letter to President Obama that said they will not confirm any nominee for CFPB director unless structural changes are made.