By Pete Schroeder
WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Democratic progressive and one-time presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has long been a vocal Wall Street critic, but next year the US senator from Massachusetts will likely have more power over the industry than ever before.
As the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, Warren is widely expected to become its chair when Democrats take over Congress in January, handing her more staff and the power to issue subpoenas, demand testimony and advance
legislation.
That could mean more scrutiny for big banks, consumer lenders, private equity firms and crypto companies, which she has long accused of fleecing consumers and which are already preparing to be in her crosshairs.
“You’re going to see a lot of investigations," said Brian Gardner, chief Washington policy strategist at Stifel.
Warren will likely probe the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's August decision to approve a bank charter for President Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial, said one person familiar with her thinking. She is also likely to investigate the administration's mass firings of financial agency workers and its attempts to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency she helped create, the person said.
BIPARTISAN AFFORDABILITY FOCUS
Although Warren built her political brand as a leading member of the Democratic Party's left flank, she will pursue policies that have bipartisan momentum, especially affordability issues, said a second person with knowledge of her thinking.
Warren this year helped steer passage of bipartisan housing affordability legislation and could build on that, the person said. Another area where she has worked with Republicans is artificial intelligence-linked export controls. Warren this year co-sponsored bills with Republicans to place restrictions on shipping advanced chips and other technology overseas.
"I'm ready to team up with any Republican who is listening to the American people," Warren wrote in a Thursday opinion piece in Time magazine on Senate Democrats' priorities. Those should include probing the administration's corporate business dealings, she added.
"Big Tech CEOs, Wall Street executives, and giant corporations should prepare to answer tough questions," she wrote.
ADMINISTRATION PUSHES BACK
Spokespeople for the OCC and World Liberty did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The administration has argued that the CFPB has made life more costly for Americans by overregulating consumer lenders, and that former Democratic leaders used the agency to attack political enemies and disfavored industries.
"We are fixing that," a CFPB spokesperson said.
A White House spokesperson said Trump is willing to work with anyone on behalf of Americans, but added that "sham investigations and radical left policies" would undermine any such effort.
Democrats will decide congressional committee roles in the coming weeks. Although two or three Democratic senators in theory could rank ahead of Warren for the chairmanship, analysts expect them to take other committee posts.
WARREN'S BANKRUPTCY STUDIES SHAPED HER PROGRESSIVE VIEWS
Warren, 77, grew up in Oklahoma and was once a registered Republican, Politico reported in 2019. She went on to become a Harvard law professor. Speaking to Reuters in December 2025, Warren said that as a professor studying bankruptcy, she saw that consumer protections were weak and fragmented.
"I was stunned by the number of people in financial trouble who had lost a job or got sick but who had also been cheated by one or more of their creditors," she told Reuters.
She later moved to Washington to help then-President Barack Obama's administration set up the CFPB in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. She went on to win a US Senate seat in 2012.
As a freshman senator, Warren quickly commanded outsized attention, building a reputation for her combative stance during hearings and sharply worded letters targeting financial institutions and their executives, sometimes with notable results.
Following pressure from Warren in 2021, for example, big banks went on to cut overdraft fees. Former Wells Fargo CEOs John Stumpf and Tim Sloan both resigned after hearings in which Warren grilled the men over the bank's various scandals.
Some executives said that at least with Warren, they know where they stand.
"She has never hidden her agenda," said James Ballentine, CEO of government relations firm Ballentine Strategies, who previously was a lobbyist for the American Bankers Association.
"I don't foresee a moderation of her views."
(Reporting by Pete Schroeder in Washington; Additional reporting by Chris Prentice in New York and Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Michelle Price and Matthew Lewis)
