Warren to collect, pare down regulations

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren said the first order of business for the Consumer Financial Protection Agency is to streamline regulations.

Warren, who was picked by President Barack Obama to be the nominal head of the agency, said in an interview on Fox News Thursday that her first priority was to collect and then pare down regulations having to do with consumer protection in financial matters.

"Right now there are seven agencies in Washington, each of which owns a piece of consumer financial regulation. And each of which competes and puts out lots of thou shall not and you can't and you must and that sort of thing," Warren said, adding, "The number one tool of this agency is a pair of scissors."

"So what this agency can do is come through and scissor out all those obligations that are somewhere else, bring them to one place, and finally make them smaller but more effective," she said.

Warren said she was "in very nice company," as one of three woman, along with Sheila Bair at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Mary Shapiro at the Securities and Exchange Commission, leading federal regulatory agencies.

"It made meal feel like somebody recognizes that what we're trying to do is clean things up," she said.