WASHINGTON – Elected President Joe Biden has chosen Rohit Chopra to be the next director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, two sources told NBC News.
Chopra, a member of the Federal Trade Commission, helped start the agency in 2011 and previously served as their assistant director.
He is an ally of Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Who proposed and built the consumer-focused agency. He is also supported by progressive groups. Bloomberg first reported the choice of Chopra.
Among those who applauded the move Sunday was Randi Weingarten, leader of the American Federation of Teachers, and the consumer advisory organization Public Citizen, which called him a ‘fantastic choice that will bring the agency back to the days of actually fighting for consumers.’
At the CFPB, Chopra worked on issues of student loans and helped secure funding for people illegally targeted by debt collectors, nonprofits and others, according to his biography.
At the FTC, he “insisted on aggressive remedies against law-abiding companies, especially repeat offenders, and he worked to stop the FTC’s reliance on settlements without money and errors,” his biography reads.
Geoff Bennett reports from Washington and Tim Stelloh from California.
