Obama appoints consumer protection advocate
September 18th, 2010 - 1:21 am ICT by IANS
Washington, Sep 17 (DPA) US President Barack Obama Friday named a Wall Street critic to oversee the creation of a new consumer protection agency.
Obama appointed Elizabeth Warren, 61, to serve as a special advisor for establishing the agency, which was part of a financial reform law passed earlier this year.
The regulatory agency is meant to keep on eye on bank practices that might take advantage of consumers. It will have the power to enforce regulations on home mortgages, credit cards and other consumer finance products.
Warren, a Harvard professor, had been serving as head of a congressional panel overseeing the Treasury Department’s management of the Bush administration’s $700-billion plan to bail out banks that were failing, in part due to faulty loan practices.
The 2008 meltdown in the finance industry precipitated the economic crisis.
Obama decided not to appoint Warren to head the agency, because that would require Senate approval, and there were concerns that senators would block the nomination because of her strong criticism of the financial industry.
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