The Story:
One of the last Obama-era banking regulators, Richard Cordray, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), has said that he will be stepping down at the end of this month, well ahead of the end of his term in summer 2018.
Although he gave no reason for stepping down now, many are of the opinion that it clears a path for Cordroy to potentially run for Ohio Governor.
Earlier this year a mutual friend of Cordray and Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O’Neill also indicated that Cordray would run for governor, and O’Neill voiced the same opinion. O’Neill is already a declared candidate for the Democratic primary, and Cordray is listed as a potential.
This Happened:
Last month, a late-night deciding vote by Vice President Mike Pence on a split Senate decision nullified a July CFPB rule (not yet in effect at the time of the Senate vote) that would have allowed consumers, for the first time, to join together in class-action lawsuits against their banks and credit card companies. Trump was appealed to by Cordray not to sign the legislation, but in vain.
Even before that, Cordray has aggressively tried to rein in banks as well as non-banking financial institutions, which has often drawn protests from the business community at large. As such, he is now a favorite of the Democrats and the bane of the financial industry and the Republicans.
It also irked Republicans that he did not step down when Trump took office, a situation further exacerbated by the fact that he could only be fired by Trump for cause.
His stepping down now might clear his way for a run for Governor, but it will also allow Trump to remake one of the last bastions of the regulatory accountability infrastructure put together by the Obama administration.
The Senate is expected to give its nod to Trump’s pick for the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Republican Jerome Powell could soon replace Janet Yellen as Fed chair.
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