U.S. President Donald Trump is naming White House budget director Mick Mulvaney to be the temporary head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, setting up a high-stakes legal clash over the regulator's leadership.
Mulvaney's appointment came just hours after outgoing CFPB Director Richard Cordray announced he was tapping a deputy to run the agency on an acting basis, a move that was widely seen as an attempt to prevent the White House from defanging the watchdog.
With two officials appointed to the same post, it is unclear who will take the reins at the controversial consumer regulator. Republicans are eager to start remaking the CFPB, which they blame for burdening banks with unnecessary rules, but Cordray and other Democrats are desperate to keep it out of the administration's grip as long as they can.
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