The Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee said Tuesday that he is talking with the White House about nominating Richard Cordray, who was the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to be the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator.

CNBC reported that Sen. Sherrod brown, D-Ohio said he had spoken with the Biden administration regarding Cordray and other potential candidates to serve as vice chairs for supervision at the Fed and fill in the vacancies on its Board of Governors.

“I am familiar with Rich Cordray. Brown stated that he likes him. I’m speaking to the White House concerning him and about a few other people.”

Due to their mutual affinity for tighter bank regulations and Ohio roots Brown might prove to be a strong ally of Cordray in weeks ahead. Cordray, who was born in Columbus in Ohio, served as Ohio’s attorney general in 2009-2011 and lost the governorship race to Republican Mike DeWine.

He is also a favorite of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a progressive Democrat who was close to Cordray during their time together at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

During Obama’s administration, Warren, then White House adviser, named Cordray as her pick to head the CFPB’s enforcement division until President Obama promoted him to oversee the whole organization. Cordray left the CFPB in 2017 after five years as the Trump administration looked for ways to erode the bureau’s influence.

As a senior official with the Education Department, Cordray manages the $1.6 billion student-loan programme. Cordray refused to comment on this story.

When asked to comment the White House refers CNBC to an earlier November statement. The administration declared last week that Jerome Powell, Fed Chairman, would be re-elected and Fed Governor Lael Bullard, vice chair of the central bank, which is a different role from that of the vice chair for supervision.

On Nov. 22, the White House announced that “President Biden” still had three open seats on its Federal Reserve Board of Governors. This includes the crucial position of Vice Chair of Supervision. The President plans to make these appointments starting in December and is determined to improve the Board’s diversity.

As the Fed’s vice-chair for supervision (a position created after the financial crisis of 2007-09), the official is one of the country’s most respected bank watchdogs. He or she oversees the safety and health of major lenders such as Citi, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase. This official oversees the banks’ capital reserves, balance sheets and other systemic risks in case of economic collapse.

Randal Quarles, Fed Governor, served until October as Fed’s first Vice Chair for Supervision. His four-year term ended in October. Brown and Warren criticised his tenure as Fed Governor Randal Quarles’ first vice chair for supervision, until October when he was elected to a four-year term. Warren also criticized him for trying to ease banking regulations following the financial crises.

Cordray would be nominated, confirmed and elected. likely offer a contrast to Quarles.

As Ohio’s former attorney general, Cordray prosecuted Bank of America in a 2009 suit that alleged that the bank’s executives worked to conceal information about Merrill Lynch’s deteriorating financials ahead of a shareholder vote on their merger.

Warren released a statement in May after Biden’s announcement that he had been named to the Education Department.

She said that Rich was an effective and fearless leader at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he held large banks responsible and made financial institutions return $12 billion to the people who cheated. “I’m very glad he will get to apply his fearlessness and expertise to protecting student loan borrowers and bringing much needed accountability to the federal student loan program.”

— CNBC’s Ylan Mui contributed to this report.