Elizabeth Warren Set To Be Tapped To Run New Consumer Agency
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Wall Street critic Elizabeth Warren will be named by President Barack Obama on Friday as a special advisor that will oversee the creation of a new consumer protection bureau.
The agency will have wide-ranging powers to enforce rules over mortgages, credit cards and other financial products. The bureau was established in the financial regulatory reform bill that President Obama signed into law earlier this year and will consolidate the consumer protection duties that are spread across several regulatory agencies at this time.
Warren, 61, will report to both President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
"They shouldn't learn about an unfair rule or practice only when it bites them, way too late for them to do anything about it," Warren wrote in a post on the White House blog on Friday. "The new law creates a chance to put a tough cop on the beat and provide real accountability and oversight of the consumer credit market."
Warren is not subject to Senate confirmation since she is not being named as the bureau’s permanent director. Her past history of criticizing Wall Street could have made for several contentious Senate hearing aimed at denying her leadership of the agency.
For the last two years, Warren has been running the Congressional Oversight Panel in charge of monitoring the Treasury's work with the $700 billion bailout program for banks known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd said Thursday on Bloomberg TV that "We need a director. We've got to have someone who is confirmable. The law requires that there be a director of this bureau of consumer financial protection and that that nominee be confirmed by the Senate."
Obama plans to name a permanent director, but those plans are not imminent.
The agency will have wide-ranging powers to enforce rules over mortgages, credit cards and other financial products. The bureau was established in the financial regulatory reform bill that President Obama signed into law earlier this year and will consolidate the consumer protection duties that are spread across several regulatory agencies at this time.
Warren, 61, will report to both President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
"They shouldn't learn about an unfair rule or practice only when it bites them, way too late for them to do anything about it," Warren wrote in a post on the White House blog on Friday. "The new law creates a chance to put a tough cop on the beat and provide real accountability and oversight of the consumer credit market."
Warren is not subject to Senate confirmation since she is not being named as the bureau’s permanent director. Her past history of criticizing Wall Street could have made for several contentious Senate hearing aimed at denying her leadership of the agency.
For the last two years, Warren has been running the Congressional Oversight Panel in charge of monitoring the Treasury's work with the $700 billion bailout program for banks known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd said Thursday on Bloomberg TV that "We need a director. We've got to have someone who is confirmable. The law requires that there be a director of this bureau of consumer financial protection and that that nominee be confirmed by the Senate."
Obama plans to name a permanent director, but those plans are not imminent.
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