Credit Card Regulation Top Priority for New CFPB Enforcement Chief

When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officially launches in July, don’t expect the agency to take it slow coming out the gate. Enforcement chief Richard Cordray said this week that the bureau plans to have  aspects of its regulatory agenda ready for immediate implementation, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“I will be seeing to it that we will be ready with some of our priorities immediately,” said the 51-year-old former Ohio attorney general.

That may include an enforcement plan for the credit card industry, which the newspaper said Cordray cited as one of his main priorities, along with mortgages and student loans. The Wall Street Journal reported Cordray stated that his new job is “in many ways doing on a 50-state basis the things I cared most about as a state attorney general, with a more robust and a more comprehensive authority.”

Given the subprime-mortgage crisis, the newspaper reports many consumer advocates are lobbying Cordray to impose greater oversight for traditional banks. Aware that many financial companies are against the bureau’s creation, Cordray responded in the interview that organizations should desire that regulators “weeds out the bad actors” competing unfairly in the market.

“Good, solid financial businesses have nothing to fear and maybe much to gain,” he said, adding that the number of regulators the bureau will employ has yet to be determined.

The bureau, a key aspect of the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul bill that was passed over the summer, has come under attack from GOP politicians. 

“Several federal regulators are slated to transfer some of their powers to the new agency on July 21… Many financial firms opposed the establishment of the agency and are worried about a potential onslaught of sanctions ranging from reprimands to cease-and-desist orders to fines to bans on certain business practices,” reported the Wall Street Journal.

Click here to read more of Cordray’s interview.