President-elect Joe Biden speaks during an event at The Queen Theater, Friday, January 15, 2021, in Wilmington, Del.
Matt Slocum | AP
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to appoint Rohit Chopra as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, relying on a progressive ally of Senator Elizabeth Warren to head the agency she created.
Chopra, commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, helped launch the agency after the 2008 financial crisis and served as deputy director, where the alarm went up about skyrocketing levels of student loan debt. The choice came at a time when Democrats are looking for ways to provide relief to millions of Americans on student loans as part of a Covid-19 relief package.
Biden announced the move on Monday, along with his intention to nominate Gary Gensler, the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Gensler, a former banker at Goldman Sachs, improved supervision of the complicated financial transactions that helped cause the Great Recession.