Richard Cordray, the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said Wednesday he will leave the agency by the end of the month.
This story by Ken Sweet originally appeared in AP News.
Corday was a holdover from the Obama administration, appointed to his position in 2013 for a five-year term. His early resignation will give President Donald Trump a chance to appoint his own leader of the powerful agency, someone who could remake the agency and potentially roll back the protections Cordray and his staff put into place in the CFPB’s first years.
Cordray’s resignation was not unexpected. It was widely believed the Ohio native plans to make a run for governor of his home state, where he was previously the state’s attorney general, next year. He could not simultaneously hold his position as director of the CFPB and announce his candidacy before the February 2018 deadline.
The CFPB was created as part of the laws passed following the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession. The agency was given a broad mandate to be a watchdog for consumers when they deal with banks, credit card, student loan and mortgage companies, as well as debt collectors and payday lenders. Nearly every American who deals with banks or a credit card company or has a mortgage has been impacted by new rules the agency put in place.
As director, he also was able to extract billions of dollars in settlements from banks, debt collectors and other financial services companies for wrongdoing. When Wells Fargo was found to have opened millions of phony accounts for its customers, the CFPB fined the bank $100 million, the agency’s largest penalty to date.
When Trump was elected, Cordray became one of the highest political appointees to be left over from the previous administration.