Segal Calls on President Obama to Appoint Elizabeth Warren To Head Consumer Finance Protection Bureau

Congressional candidate David Segal today formally called for President Obama to appoint Elizabeth Warren as head of the newly-formed Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.

Warren was one of the major architects of the financial reform legislation that became law earlier this month, and consumer rights activists are urgently pushing for her appointment – which is being opposed by many leaders of the banking industry.

“I first started working with Elizabeth Warren’s office in 2006, as I put forth anti-predatory lending legislation as a member of the Providence City Council, and met with her to discuss the CFPB just last weekend” Segal noted. “As somebody who recognized the impending financial crisis years before it precipitated the collapse of our economy, and succeeded in pushing the broadest progressive overhaul of our banking sector in decades, Professor Warren is clearly the right person for the job.”

Banking lobbyists have contended that Warren – a strong consumer rights advocate – would not be an impartial head of the CFPB. For instance, Reuters this week quoted Alan Kaplinsky, an advisor to banks and consumer financial companies, as saying, “I don’t think she can run that new agency in a fair, balanced way where she can listen to all the constituencies, not just the consumer advocates.”

Segal noted that “Nobody made a peep when John Dugan, a former banking lobbyist, was appointed head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency – making him the primary regulator of the biggest domestic banks.”

Segal continued, “It’s telling that many in Washington think banking lobbyists are impartial, while consumer rights advocates are biased. We need to reform our government so that it abides by the will of ordinary Americans, not the corporations that pay for elections: Elizabeth Warren’s appointment would be a strong step in the right direction.”