Elizabeth Warren, Obama’s choice to set up new consumer agency, promises aggressive approach

New consumer agency architect vows tough stance

WASHINGTON — The woman President Barack Obama has installed to set up a new consumer protection agency says she won’t back down in the face of business resistance.

Elizabeth Warren told CBS’s “The Early Show” Tuesday that she “never really wanted a job here,” but now that Obama has turned to her to organize the new agency, she’s ready to take it on.

Warren says Obama told her not to worry about job titles, but to “start pushing back” against companies fighting new regulations aimed at protecting borrowers. She adds, “That’s exactly what I intend to do, and I intend to do it as hard as I can.”

Obama stopped short of nominating Warren to head the agency, avoiding a likely Senate filibuster. Instead, he appointed her to create the new consumer protection body.

Obama named Warren a special adviser last week and tasked her with setting up the new agency to look out for consumers in their dealings with banks, mortgage companies and other financial institutions.

But he did not nominate Warren to be the consumer bureau’s director, a move that allows her to avoid a lengthy fight with Senate Republicans who view her as too critical of Wall Street and big banks.

Warren has spent the past two years running the Congressional Oversight Panel, charged with monitoring the Treasury Department’s handling of the $700 billion bank rescue fund known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.