WASHINGTON — President Obama followed this week's recess appointment of Richard Cordray with a personal visit Friday to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which he called "one of the most important agencies for people that there is."
Obama lauded the bureau's early work to streamline and enhance disclosures for mortgages, student loans and credit cards, and he praised Cordray as a "great director who is tailor-made to lead this agency."
"Now that Richard is your director, you can finally exercise the full power that the agency has been given to protect consumers under the law," he told a crowd of cheering staffers.
"Now that he's here, irresponsible debt collectors and payday lenders and independent mortgage servicers and loan providers — they're all bound by the same rules as everyone else," he added. "No longer are consumers left alone to face the risks of unfair or deceptive or abusive practices."
The president appeared on stage in a small auditorium at the CFPB's office — just across from the White House at 1700 G St. — with the bureau's leaders, including Cordray, Deputy Director Raj Date, and a handful of associate and assistant directors.
The visit lasted only about 20 minutes, during which Obama also shook hands and chatted with the crowd of about 100 employees, complimenting one on his Chicago White Sox tie.
"I thought I would just drop by to help your new director move in," he joked. "He's been a little busy so I thought maybe some boxes, a little plant."
But Obama took no questions from the audience or reporters, and did not address claims from Republicans and some in the financial industry that Cordray's recess appointment was invalid. The White House has dismissed those claims
He thanked staffers for working to stand up the bureau, and helping to restore financial security for middle-class Americans. He said they also had a critical role to play in making sure that all financial companies play by the same rules, and that those rules are enforced.
"We can help give everyone the clear and transparent information that they need to make informed financial decisions, and have companies compete for their business in an open and honest way," he said. "That's Richard's commitment, that's my commitment, that's the commitment of everyone standing on this stage and that's your commitment. That's why this agency is so important."
Obama also gave a "special shout-out" to "the woman who dreamt up this agency and spent so much time turning it into a reality: Elizabeth Warren."
The bureau's work is already making a difference, Obama said, specifically through its Know Before You Owe project, which aims to make mortgage disclosures more transparent, making financial aid packages easier to compare and make credit card agreements shorter and simpler.
Americans from all across the country have been sending in their stories to help shape the new initiatives, Obama noted.
"This is not something where it's just a Washington, top-down process," he said. "You are gathering the experiences of individual families, seeing how they got hurt, how they might have gotten cheated, and that's helping you define how you enforce these rules. And that's vitally important."
