washington reuters  wall street may be facing an uncomfortable four years after presidentelect joe biden’s team confirmed on monday it planned to nominate two consumer champions to lead top financial agencies signaling a tougher stance on the industry than many had anticipated gary gensler will serve as chair of the securities and exchange commission sec and federal trade commission member rohit chopra will head the consumer financial protection bureau cfpb progressives see the agencies as critical to advancing policy priorities on climate change and social justice wall streetfriendly republicans on monday criticized biden for bowing to leftists warning the picks would be divisive “the biden team is pandering to members of the farleft” patrick mchenry lead republican on the house of representatives finance panel said of chopra while warning gensler should “resist pressure to commandeer our securities disclosure regime to try to fix noneconomic issues or social problems” the chair of the derivatives regulator from 2009 to 2014 gensler implemented new swaps trading rules created by congress after the financial crisis developing a reputation as a tough operator willing to stand up to powerful wall street interests chopra helped set up the cfpb after the crisis and served as its first student loan ombudsman at the ftc he campaigned for tougher rules for big tech companies on consumer privacy and competition and for stricter enforcement penalties with republicans appearing to have a good chance to maintain control of the senate following the nov 3 election financial executives had hoped biden would pursue more moderate picks but democratic victories in two georgia runoff elections earlier this month mean democrats will have effective control of the chamber once biden and vice presidentelect kamala harris are sworn in on wednesday those wins also mean antiwall street firebrand sherrod brown will lead the powerful senate banking committee he has said he plans to try to repeal wall streetfriendly rules introduced by president donald trump’s regulators on monday brown hailed chopra as a “bold” choice who would ensure the cfpb “plays a leading role in combating racial inequities in our financial system” while gensler would “hold bad actors accountable” and put “working families first” gensler is expected to pursue new corporate disclosures on climate change relatedrisks political spending and the composition and treatment of company workforces and to complete postcrisis executive compensation curbs among other rules chopra is expected to review payday lending and debtcollection rules which influential consumer groups say won’t protect americans they also hope he will stamp out exorbitant lending rates and abusive debtcollection practices address the student debt burden and gaps in minorities’ access to credit “the cfpb has an incredibly important job to do including stopping financial ripoffs” said lisa donner executive director at americans for financial reform a think tank “it also has an urgent role to play in helping families survive and recover from the pandemicinduced economic crisis” biden though will first have to fire kathy kraninger the current cfpb director a power he will have thanks to a ruling last year by the supreme court which said the cfpb director served at the president’s will but richard hunt chief executive of the consumer bankers association rejected the idea that biden should automatically use that power “cba does not believe it is in the best interest of consumers to have a new director with each change in administration this whipsaw effect will stifle innovation and prevent consistent regulations” hunt said in an usually forceful statement