President Obama Appoints Richard Cordray to Lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau January 5, 2012

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President Obama speaks on appointing Richard Cordray as America's consumer watchdog.

Speaking to students and teachers at Shaker Heights High School near Cleveland, Ohio, the President said:

"Today I'm appointing Richard as America's consumer watchdog. And that means he is going to be in charge of one thing: looking out for the best interests of American consumers. Looking out for you.

So if you're a student—I see some young people out there—his job will be to protect you from dishonest lending practices and to make sure that you've got the information you need on student loans. He has already started up an initiative called "Know Before You Owe." ... If you're a veteran, he'll help make sure that you aren't taken advantage of when you're coming home from serving your country. And it turns out that military families are some of the folks who are most vulnerable to some of these financial abuses. If you're a senior, Richard is going to help make sure you don't lose your home or your retirement because somebody saw you as an easier target.

See, most people in the financial services industry do the right thing, but they're at a disadvantage if nobody is enforcing the rules. We can't let that happen. Now is not the time to play politics while people's livelihoods are at stake. Now is the time to do everything we can to protect consumers, prevent financial crises like the one that we've been through from ever happening again. That starts with letting Richard do his job."

Say you stand with President Obama and Richard Cordray: https://my.barackobama.com/richardcordrayvid