Obama Passes Over Warren, Names Deputy To Run Consumer Agency

President Obama nominated Richard Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general and state lawmaker, to run the nascent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Sunday. The announcement comes just four days before the CFPB, set up in 2010′s sweeping overhaul of the financial sector, is set to open its doors, and marks the beginning of the end of financial regulatory reform’s foremost political drama.

Cordray’s resume is well suited to the task at the CFPB, an agency responsible for policing consumer products like mortgages and credit cards. As Ohio’s top law enforcement official, he led the charge in a class action lawsuit on behalf of public pension funds against Bank of America over losses incurred after the acquisition of Merrill Lynch. After years in Ohio politics — and a few failed attempts to reach Washington by way of Congress — Cordray, 52, landed a job as assistant director for enforcement at the CFPB after losing re-election last November. “Richard Cordray has spent his career advocating for middle class families,” Obama said,” and looking out for ordinary people in our financial system.” Of couse, Obama will get more scrutiny for whom he didn’t pick, than for whom he did.

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