Battle for leadership continues at consumer agency

One contender to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will keep fighting to get the job after suffering a legal setback.

Leandra English said that she will seek a preliminary injunction in her quest to block the man President Donald Trump tapped to run the nation's top financial watchdog agency, Mick Mulvaney, according to court papers filed Friday.

English, the bureau's deputy director, was chosen to run the agency on an acting basis by outgoing director Richard Cordray, an Obama administration appointee. But Trump picked Mulvaney, the federal budget director, creating a leadership crisis in the bureau.

English went to court to keep Mulvaney from becoming acting director. Federal Judge Timothy Kelly ruled against her last Tuesday. In the new filing, English said that she will file for a preliminary injunction by Tuesday, Dec. 5.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was established after the financial crisis to keep banks from exploiting consumers. Cordray was criticized by congressional Republicans for being overzealous but was lauded by consumer advocates for aggressively going after banks for wrongdoing.

Mulvaney, and whoever becomes the permanent director, would almost certainly be friendlier toward financial companies than Cordray and his team.