Former CFPB Director on what Biden’s CFPB will look like

Today’s Mortgage Desk segment of HousingWire Daily features an interview with Richard Cordray, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as he talks about what comes next for the CFPB under the new administration. 

President Joe Biden nominated Federal Trade Commission Commissioner Rohit Chopra as the next director, and he is now awaiting confirmations by the Senate. In this episode, Cordray talks about what the industry can expect from the soon-to-be director. 

Here is a small preview of today’s interview with the former CFPB Director. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

Kelsey Ramírez: During the Trump administration we saw more states rising up and passing regulations as the president pushed his deregulatory agenda at the federal level. Do you think states will step back now, or will there just be even more regulations to watch for moving forward?

Richard Cordray: In reality, there’s room for a good solid partnership between the federal government being effective on these issues, and state governments being effective on these issues. People in California shouldn’t have to wait on Washington or worry about the whims of Washington in terms of whether they can protect Californians in the financial marketplace. But if they’re getting support and reinforcement from Washington, they can work together on a lot of things and be more effective. 

There’s never really enough oversight of these markets; there’s always lots of nooks and crannies where people are doing things and people are being cheated by companies. And so reinforcing one another and creating a strong partnership between the federal government and states is the best approach. When we didn’t have that from the Trump administration CFPB, the states had to go more on their own. But I think we’re going to return to the days of the kind of partnership we built when I was director of the CFPB between the CFPB on the one hand, and state attorneys general and state financial regulators, on the other hand, where they’re both trying to work together to look out for the citizens of every one of the 50 states.

HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsroom that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Victoria Wickham.

Articles discussed in this episode: 

• Biden nominates Rohit Chopra to head CFPB