Cordray to resign from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau;

tru_m.a.c

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Richard Cordray, the embattled director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will resign his post at the end of the month.

Cordray made the long-expected announcement in an email to bureau staff on Wednesday.

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"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," he wrote. "Together we have made a real and lasting difference that has improved people's lives."

Cordray has been rumored to be considering a run for governor of Ohio, but he gave no indication Wednesday of what his plans are.

His departure kicks off a high-stakes scramble to secure the future of the CFPB, a powerful Washington regulator that has cheered consumers and angered companies with its aggressive enforcement.

As its inaugural director, Cordray fashioned the fledgling bureau into a razor-toothed watchdog with as much bite as bark, racking up a legacy of sweeping regulations that reshaped how mortgages are sold, debts are collected and credit card fees are tallied.


More broadly, his bureau gave consumers a strong advocate that returned nearly $12 billion to 29 million wronged customers.

Now the watchdog agency faces an uncertain future. Led by a lone director armed with plentiful funding that can’t be withheld by Congress, its broad jurisdiction over banks, mortgage companies, credit card issuers and other financial providers is under fire from Republicans who want to rein it in.

President Donald Trump, never a Cordray fan, has been scouting for his replacement among the ranks of Republican attorneys general. But the partisan grip squeezing Washington, and the agency’s supercharged politics, mean that anyone chosen for the job will face a rocky, if not impossible, road to confirmation.

Republicans, too, could use Cordray’s departure to push for the bureau’s restructuring. The American Bankers Association, Consumer Mortgage Coalition, National Association of Realtors and other trade groups have endorsed a plan to replace the CFPB’s lone-director system with a five-member commission populated by Republicans and Democrats.

In Ohio and across the country, Cordray, a former state attorney general, is adored among progressives and will be able to raise money quickly despite his shortcomings as a shoe-leather campaigner.

If he chooses to run for governor, he would face a handful of lesser-known but still serious candidates: Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, former Rep. Betty Sutton, state Sen. Joe Schiavoni, former state Rep. Connie Pillich, and former Wayne County Commissioner Dave Kiefer.

Their Republican opponents have been building formidable warchests in a bid to replace Gov. John Kasich, who is stepping down because of term limits.

Attorney General Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Jon Husted each raised $2.5 million in the first six months of the year. Rep. Jim Renacci has shuttled $4 million of his own money into his gubernatorial bid. Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor raised $640,000.

Ohio Democrats worry that no candidate will be able to match the fundraising chops of DeWine, Husted, or Renacci — not even Cordray.

"The donor base is just still pretty bedraggled because of 2016,” said Sharen Neuhardt, a former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor who has strong ties to what’s left of the Ohio Democratic donor community.

Cordray to resign from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
 

hashmander

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consumers don't need protection from these shadowy organizations. the trump admin will protect the consumer directly from the white house.
 
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