Reuters reports that Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will step down at the end of the month.  Large companies (banks, auto finances, pay day loans and student loans, to name a very few) are ecstatic because this opens the door for Trump to nominate a CFPB head who will go easier on these industries.  Several of these companies, as student loan servicer Navient (NAVI.O) and lender TCF National Bank (TCF.N), already have gone to court to fend off large fines while Cordray – renowned for imposing steep penalties- is still in place.

By Corday stepping down this gives companies being pursued by the CFPB for alleged predatory lending practices added incentive to stall settlement talks until Republican President Donald Trump puts his own puppet in place.

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Commentary: How Trump is making it easier to exploit consumers

Richard Cordray, who has been the head of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) since 2012, announced Wednesday that he will be resigning before the end of his five-year term. His interim replacement will be self-described “right-wing nutjob” Mick Mulvaney.

Currently the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget Director, Mulvaney is a longtime politician who has tirelessly worked to dismantle regulations and, as CBS News notes, “a longtime critic of the agency.” Nominating Mulvaney, in other words, is functionally equivalent to eliminating the agency entirely.