Biden Considering CFPB Director Cordray As Fed Vice Chair For Banking Supervision

It appears that for the White House, regulating consumer finance (i.e., complaints about credit card rates) and regulating bank holding companies, shadow banks and hedge funds is more or less the same because moments ago the WSJ reported that President Biden is considering Richard Cordray, the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to serve as the Fed’s top banking regulator, citing people familiar with the matter.

If nominated and confirmed by the Senate, Cordray would become the government’s most influential overseer of the American banking system, succeeding the outgoing Randal Quarles as the Fed’s vice chairman of banking supervision.

Cordray, who is an attorney, served as head of the CFPB from 2012 to 2017 under Obama, a watchdog post created by Congress after the 2008 financial crisis to regulate lenders and other companies tied to consumer finance.

He is currently a top official at the Department of Education, serving as the chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid, overseeing the $1.6 trillion student-loan program. And since he will have virtually no knowledge of what he will be regulating over at the Fed, he should fit right in.