Biden Taps FTC’s Rohit Chopra To Head CFPB

Rohit Chopra, a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has been tapped by President-elect Joe Biden to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), according to a press release from Biden’s transition website. 

Gary Gensler, former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under President Barack Obama, has been appointed to be the commissioner of the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Chopra, who previously served as the CFPB’s student-loan watchdog under Obama, will replace Trump-appointee Kathy Kraninger. He and Elizabeth Warren, not a senator then, established the CFPB in 2010 following the 2008 financial crisis.

A Wharton-trained MBA, he worked as a McKinsey consultant before moving into government. As head of the CFPB, he was known to take a hard stance on borrowers’ rights, using his position to exert pressure on student loan lenders. 

The bureau was the target of criticism by the Trump administration and Wall Street as having too much power to hand down regulations. The Democrats, however, have been vocal about needing a tough leader to head the CFPB and tackle financial industry issues.

Weakened under the Trump administration, consumer advocates are looking to the CFPB to take a strong stance on issues like payday lenders and overdraft fees. Under Trump, the payday rule was revised in July.

“What we hope for is a comprehensive rule that will address the whole range of problems that overdraft fees pose,” Rebecca Borné, a senior policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, told the WSJ.

At the FTC since 2018, Chopra was an aggressive enforcer. His exit could leave Democrats in a minority position. 

Biden is also said to be looking at two former Obama officials to run the top antitrust job at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). One pick might be 18-year DOJ veteran Renata Hesse. The other is Juan Arteaga, who worked for the DOJ from 2013 to 2017 and served as the deputy assistant attorney general for Civil Enforcement.