Earlier today, President Obama stated his intent to nominate Richard Cordray to serve as the first Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Cordray’s nomination will require confirmation by the United States Senate or a recess appointment by the President.
Cordray is currently the CFPB’s Director of Enforcement, a position which does not require Senate confirmation, and most recently served as the elected Attorney General of Ohio (D). He has previously served as Ohio’s Treasurer, a law professor and a U.S. Supreme Court clerk.
Cordray’s appointment is further evidence of the close collaboration expected between the newly formed CFPB and the state Attorneys General and is consistent with the President’s Executive Order requiring federal agencies to collaborate and not seek to pre-empt state law enforcement without good cause.
The CFPB was formed as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and will be fully authorized and operational on July 21, 2011.
For more information on this alert, please contact any of the lawyers listed below:
Jeffrey Q. Smith
Partner, Bingham McCutchen
Co-chair, Securities and Financial Institutions Litigation Group
jq.smith@bingham.com
212.705.7566
Nicholas M. Gess
Of Counsel, Bingham McCutchen
Principal, Bingham Consulting
nicholas.gess@bingham.com
202.373.6218
This article was originally published by Bingham McCutchen LLP.