Jim McConville (Financial Advisor)
October 6, 2011

“Consumer advocates are exhorting the U.S. Senate to approve Richard Corday as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, arguing that the CFPB can exert little authority in consumer protection matters until a director is appointed. The Senate Banking Committee approved Cordray’s nomination Thursday morning by a 12-to-10 along party lines. The nomination is ready for action by the full Senate, where Cordray’s nomination is less certain. Republicans have not backed down from their position of blocking any nominee to head the new bureau unless its structure is changed. Republicans fear the bureau will wield too much power and have too little oversight. “This [delay] is harming consumers,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and chairman of Americans for Financial Reform Task Force on the CFPB, during a conference call on Wednesday that was sponsored by the consumer group Americans for Financial Reform. ‘The lack of the full authority of the CFPB is a serious problem, which leaves students, military families, veterans and older Americans at risk of financial problems,’ Mierzwinski added. ‘Only with a director can the CFPB go after the other non-bank financial companies.’  Jean Ann Fox, director of Financial Services for the Consumer Federation of America, said the CFPB needs a director before it can fully enforce the laws that are already on the books—the rules that apply to non-bank financial service companies. Without a director the CFPB can’t write new rules that define unfair, deceptive or abusive financial practices, Fox said. Mierzwinski said Americans for Financial Reform is calling upon ‘those senators who have been opposing to move forward on the (Cordray) nomination to let it go forward.’” Click here for more.