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For all the talk about legal challenges to the recess appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the American Financial Services Association, which represents nonbank consumer lenders, has no intention of stepping into the fray.
January 10
WASHINGTON — While most banks have stayed mum about Richard Corday's recess appointment, Citigroup weighed in with its analysis in a blog post Wednesday.
Whether analysts believe the Senate was in recess or not, several key questions now linger, wrote Candi Wolff, Citi's executive vice president for global government affairs. How will the president's move impact other nominees, to what extent will litigation impact the effectiveness of the CFPB, and what precedent has been set by the president's controversial move?
"The White House, no doubt, weighed these obstacles before moving ahead with the appointment, however the ramifications of their action may be felt long after this presidency," she said.
Wolff said legal challenges to the appointment "are likely to come from every quarter," including individuals, community and labor groups and possibly even from Congress. It also seems that nominees to the Treasury Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will not be confirmed any time soon, she said.
"If things weren't tense before, the political stakes have been upped," she said. "Republicans in Congress may now see even less reason to seek compromise between the GOP and President Obama. Add to that a hostile election-year environment and even the most non controversial piece of legislation may not make it in 2012."
Although much of the attention has focused on Cordray, Wolff said there is some debate about whether the announcement was actually cover for three other appointments Obama made the same day to the National Labor Relations Board.
A copy of the blog post can be found here:
