United States Federal Trade Commission building in Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump intends to nominate an Indian American financial services expert as a commissioner to the Federal Trade Commission, the White House said Oct. 19, writes Lalit K. Jha.

The nomination of New York-based Rohit Chopra, currently a Senior Fellow at the Consumer Federation of America where he focuses on consumer protection issues facing young people and military families, is for the reminder of a seven-year term expiring on Sept. 25, 2019, a White House statement said.

From 2010-2015, Chopra served at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as Assistant Director, where he oversaw the agency’s work on student financial services issues.

The Secretary of the Treasury also appointed him as the agency’s student loan ombudsman. In 2016, Chopra served as Special Adviser to the Secretary of Education.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) works with the Justice Department to enforce antitrust law and pursues companies accused of deceptive advertising. It is an independent agency that is headed by a chairman and four commissioners. No more than three commissioners can come from any one party.

The agency is currently headed by Acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen, a Republican, with Democrat Terrell McSweeny the only other commissioner. The president has long been expected to name a permanent chair and fill the three empty commission seats, two Republican and one Democrat or independent.

To fill the empty Democratic seat on the commission, the president tapped Chopra who holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a master’s in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Prior to his government service, he was an associate at McKinsey & Company, where he served clients in the financial services and consumer technology sectors.