President-elect Joe Biden to Tap Rohit Chopra to Lead Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- A strong ally of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, his selection signals the Biden administration’s plan to return the agency to its pre-Trump glory.
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate Rohit Chopra, 38, to be the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Chopra, a strong ally of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), is currently a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. Prior to the FTC, he was special advisor to the secretary at the Department of Education He previously served at the CFPB as the assistant director and Student Loan Ombudsman.
Breaking the news on Jan. 17, Politico said, if confirmed, Chopra “would be returning to helm an agency he helped Warren set up after its establishment by the landmark Dodd-Frank financial reform law of 2010.” The report said Chopra’s selection “signals that the Biden administration plans to return the CFPB to the more-muscular posture of its early days following three years of Trump administration appointees curbing the agency’s reach.”
As per reports in Politico and Bloomberg, in his role at the CFPB, Chopra is expected to ramp up enforcement of fair lending laws, as well as cracking down on payday lenders. At the FTC, Chopra has “pushed the agency to be more skeptical of private equity buyers and more aggressive in using its rulemaking powers to rein in businesses,” Bloomberg reported.
CNN reported that Chopra was among the names of “preferred potential nominees listed early on in the transition by the Progressive Change Institute (PCCI), which was founded by the same duo who formed the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a Warren-aligned group.”
Hailing Chopra’s potential nomination, the PCCI, in a Jan. 17 tweet said, “If Biden selects someone of Rohit Chopra’s gravitas to lead the CFPB, that would be a big win for consumers and a sign that executive power will be used to get tangible results for the American people. Rohit has a proven record of challenging corporate abuse on behalf of everyday families who don’t want to be cheated.”
However, Politico noted that “Chopra’s confirmation process will likely be difficult, with Democrats only narrowly in control of the Senate.” In the past, the GOP lawmakers have “slammed” CFPB’s “tough regulations as executive overreach.”
Chopra has a BA from Harvard and an MBA from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.