An investigation by the Associated Press has found a former Payday lender has applied to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the watchdog consumer agency.

The former CEO of the lending company who applied for the job had been under investigation by the CFPB.  From the Associated Press:

“Such a request would have been extraordinary in the years when the agency was run by an Obama appointee and often targeted payday lenders. Along with recent actions taken by the CFPB, it suggests a cozier relationship between industry and regulator since the Trump administration took over in November.”

But Obama is long gone and so are many of the rules and regs his administration enacted to help consumers.

Now Mick Mulvaney is in charge of the agency and is also Trump’s budget director.

It was Janet Matricciani, the former head of World Acceptance Corp., who lobbied for the job with Mulvaney.  World Acceptance had been under investigation by the CFPB during the Obama administration for its lending practices but the company said in January that the investigation had concluded without any enforcement action. And Matricciani had resigned after 2 1/2 years as CEO.

A ProPublica investigation found World Acceptance to be one of the nation’s largest payday lenders and the company, based in South Carolina, was also a big contributor to Mick Mulvaney when he was a congressman from the state.

There is no evidence Mulvaney acted on the job request by Matricciani.