By Nikhila Natarajan

New York, Jan 18 (IANS): US President-elect Joe Biden is all set to nominate Rohit Chopra of the Federal Trade Commission as the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, adding to the growing list of nearly two dozen Indian Americans already named to top positions in the incoming White House team.

The announcement comes at a time when Democrats are hoping to ease the pressure of student loans for millions of Americans.

Below is the text from a Biden transition statement on Chopra on Monday morning:

Rohit Chopra is a Commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission. He has actively advocated to promote fair, competitive markets that protect families and honest businesses from abuses.

Commissioner Chopra was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in 2018, and he has pushed for aggressive remedies against lawbreaking companies, especially repeat offenders. Together with state and international law enforcement partners, he has worked to increase scrutiny of dominant technology firms that pose risks to privacy, national security, and fair competition.

Chopra previously served as the Assistant Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he led the agency's efforts on student loans. In 2011, the Secretary of the Treasury appointed him to serve as the CFPB's Student Loan Ombudsman, a new position established in the financial reform law. He also served as a Special Advisor at the US Department of Education.

In these roles, Chopra led efforts to spur competition in the student loan financing market, develop new tools for students and student loan borrowers to make smarter decisions, and secure hundreds of millions of dollars in refunds for borrowers victimized by unlawful conduct by loan servicers, debt collectors, and for-profit college chains.

He holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.