Richard Cordray, President Obama’s pick to run the CFPB, will be going before the Senate Banking Committee at 2:30 p.m. EST today. A flurry of stories came through this morning, some touting Cordray’s promises of cooperation.

According to the Associated Press, in remarks prepared for the hearing, Cordray said his experience as former Ohio attorney general taught him that litigation can be slow, costly, and unnecessarily acrimonious. He said he would use lawsuits “judiciously,” and noted that the bureau has other powers to resolve problems, including issuing rules, writing reports and examining large banks and many nonbank institutions.

In a bid to reach out to Republicans, Cordray also said that if confirmed, “I promise that you will have one person who will always be accountable to you for how we are carrying out the laws laid down by Congress and I will be eager to hear your thoughts about how we should do our work.”

Here’s a look at what’s on the docket for today’s hearing:

Panel 1

• Ms. Patricia M. Loui
  to be a Member of the Board of Directors
  Export-Import Bank of the United States, Hawaii
• Mr. Larry W. Walther
  to be a Member of the Board of Directors
  Export-Import Bank of the United States

Panel 2

• Honorable Richard Cordray
  to be Director
  Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection

Earlier this afternoon, and after much speculation over the weekend, President Barack Obama nominated former Ohio AG Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Obama and Cordray were joined in the Rose Garden by Elizabeth Warren, widely considered the architect of the bureau. Though consumer groups wanted her to be named its leader, Warren was strongly opposed by Republicans and would have faced a difficult path to confirmation. And now the question remains: Will Cordray receive the same treatment, given that Senate Republicans have refused to confirm any nominee without changes to Bureau.

“Richard has helped stand up the bureau’s enforcement division over the past six months. He took this job, which meant being away from his wife and twins back in Ohio, because he believes so deeply in the mission of the bureau,” Obama said at the White House.

While many companies have been hit hard by the struggling economy, a number of payday lenders and pawn shops have seen an uptick in business over the past year. Here’s AP reporter Bernard Condon’s explanation for the industry’s recent success:

In investing, it’s often better to focus on what you can safely predict, even if that safety is found in companies that thrive on hard times. One good bet: The jobless aren’t likely to find work anytime soon. And companies profiting from their bad fortune will continue to do so.

The Associated Press reports:

CRL spent $140,000 lobbying in the second quarter, according to the Associated Press.

Associated Press reporting.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair is pushing back against key pillars of the Obama administration’s financial overhaul plan, saying they wouldn’t survive in Congress and calling her own alternatives more viable.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Bair said Congress won’t approve two major parts of the package: Expanding the Federal Reserve’s authority to regulate the largest financial companies and giving a proposed new consumer protection agency examination and enforcement powers over banks.

The AP’s Dena Potter looks at the data in Virgina: 

New laws that cut down on the number of payday loans borrowers can get have drastically reduced the number of the short-term, high-interest loans issued in Virginia.

Last year, Virginia’s payday lenders made nearly 3.4 million payday loans, or about 281,000 each month. Through the end of May, lenders had issued 226,807 loans, an average of 45,000 per month _ an 84 percent decline, according to the Bureau of Financial Institutions.

From the AP: 

A move to restrict payday lending appears headed for failure yet again in South Carolina.
Lawmakers said Wednesday the chances of them passing a compromise this year are slim, with just four days left on the legislative calendar.
   
The House passed a measure earlier this year that industry opponents criticized as too weak. The Senate passed a stronger version last year but hasn’t been able to pass anything this year.  The bill currently before the Senate calls for a two-day waiting period and a loan limit of $500 with no link to income.

The good news is that there are only four day left on the legislative calendar.  That means only two dozen more blog posts on South Carolina.   

Latest is that the legislation is dying.

So far, it looks like no rate cap got into the credit card bill being negotiated in the Senate.  From the AP:

Consumers who are paying more in interest because they have fallen behind on their credit-card bills could regain their older, lower rates if they pay their bills on time for six months, under a compromise proposal reached by senators seeking changes in laws governing the credit card industry.

The Senate proposal was brokered between Republicans, who say lenders should be able to take into account a person’s behavior, and Democrats, who contend that the practice of hiking rates on past balances prevents consumers from climbing out of debt.

The agreement was included as part of a broader package on credit card reform, announced Monday by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. The bill was expected to pass this week with President Barack Obama’s support.

Dodd had originally proposed an outright ban on retroactive rate increases. But without Republican support, his bill was considered unlikely to overcome procedural hurdles in the Senate.

The banks are still very powerful on the Hill.