Lenders will be presumed to have complied with the new rule if they issue what the bureau calls "qualified mortgages".
"Elizabeth Warren was the best qualified to lead this bureau that she conceived — and we imagine Richard Cordray would agree," said Stephanie Taylor, a consumer advocate who collected 350,000 signatures on a petition calling for the president to nominate Ms. Warren.
"It's just about impossible to find a matter of justice he has not tackled, and it's hard to imagine somebody who is more uniquely qualified to lead a bureau that covers all of it — traditional threats like violent and organized crime to the constantly changing threats like terrorism and cybersecurity," Mr. Obama said.
Elizabeth Warren is more than qualified to head this bureau.
At that time, the bureau was not qualified to deliver it.
Andrew Williams, a Treasury spokesman, called Ms. Warren "a driving force" behind the creation of the bureau and "exceptionally well qualified" to lead it.
In my experience, that takes all of five seconds at the nearest motor vehicles bureau, which may have once qualified as a synonym for purgatory but is admirably efficient these days.
Many of Navient's troubled borrowers would have qualified for a $0 monthly payment, the consumer bureau said.
But consumer advocates worry that the bureau will succumb to industry pressure to bless as "qualified" some predatory mortgages that could result in borrowers losing their homes.
But despite hundreds of complaints, the bureau gives students little guidance in knowing which schools are best qualified and indeed does not fulfill many of its core oversight responsibilities.
A bureau memo said the only other bidder, Sennet & Krumholz, had been qualified and had offered a lower price.
