Biden nominees to CFPB and SEC to usher in new era of regulatory oversight

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Gary Gensler as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Rohit Chopra as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). These moves hint at a stronger oversight role for these agencies.

Why should we care?
Gensler, a former Goldman Sachs executive, held senior roles at the Treasury Department under the Clinton administration and was chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission during the Obama administration. With a history of taking on financial industry players in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, he is expected to employ an aggressive approach. “I expect the SEC’s priority in the Biden administration will first and foremost be investor protection,” Karen Shaw Petrou, co-founder of Federal Financial Analytics, told NBC News. Meanwhile, Chopra, Biden’s nominee to lead the CFPB, previously worked with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to help her launch the CFPB prior to her Senate run. He was previously student-loan ombudsman at the bureau, where he reportedly pushed loan providers to improve treatment of borrowers. One likely early priority will be to affirm the agency's focus on enforcing fair lending laws. It may take time, however, for the industry to adapt to a Biden-era CFPB. “Erasing President Donald Trump's industry-friendly imprint on the bureau, which has pulled back on enforcement and watered down Obama-era rules, may take years,” Politico reported.