Bernanke appoints Bialek inspector general for CFPB

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke appointed Mark Bialek to inspector general of the central bank and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, effective July 25. Bialek recently served as the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency. He replaces Elizabeth Coleman, who served as inspector general of the Fed for four years and sat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for 22 years. The CFPB, created under the Dodd-Frank Act, will become the de facto regulator of the mortgage industry from servicing to origination when it opens July 21. The Fed will finance the CFPB, but will operate on its own though no director has been nominated as of yet. But the new regulator has been busy under guidance from Elizabeth Warren, the bureau’s architect and special adviser to the Treasury Department. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress continue work to slash funding and apply more stringent checks and balances on the bureau. The CFPB recently released a second set of mortgage disclosure forms for industry comment, and it identified the types of nonbank firms it will oversee. The bureau will ultimately assume 47 rules from eight regulatory agencies. Write to Jon Prior. Follow him on Twitter @JonAPrior.