Hey, Watch Me!
I'm on PBS tonight. Doing my monthly commentary on The Nightly Business Report. In South Florida, that's on Channel 2, WPBT, airing at 7 p.m. Tonight, I'm talking about Wall Street's biggest issue with its customers.

And, speaking of consumers, here's the story I had in the paper, with updates.

The Florida Office of Financial Regulation, under fire for its role in not uncovering what prosecutors say was Allen Stanford’s $7 billion bank fraud, has a new commissioner who represented the state's banking industry for more than two decades.

Gov. Charlie Crist's Cabinet appointed J. Thomas Cardwell, an Orlando attorney who has served as general counsel for the Florida Bankers Association for 25 years, as the new chief.

Previous Commissioner Don Saxon resigned last year after an award-winning Miami Herald investigation revealed that Florida allowed thousands of criminals to become mortgage brokers.The Stanford operation, based in Texas, had a large operation in Miami that apparently didn't draw state regulators' attention until the Securities and Exchange Commission stepped in during February.

“I have every expectation that Tom Cardwell will bring a strong enforcement mentality and responsible approach,” Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said in a news release.

But consumer advocates didn't share that view.

“The governor should have appointed a consumer advocate instead of an industry shill,” said attorney Robert Murphy of Fort Lauderdale.

“That he’s a banker says a lot about who the governor sides with,” said attorney Jeffrey Tromberg of Fort Lauderdale. “I certainly hope he’s going to jump in to what’s going on throughout the state with foreclosure scam artists preying on people suffering the most these days.”

Cardwell called me after deadline to say he has spent quite a bit of time in his career advocating for consumers. He is chair of Akerman Senterfitt's Financial Institutions group and in that role served as the banker's outside general counsel.

He said he was also a founder of Orlando's legal aid program and he was also a chairman of the local housing finance authority, which helps low-income consumers.

"I am not personally an industry ideologue," he said. "That's not my style."

In addition, he says it takes one to face off with one.

"My background and experience on the industry side probably puts me in a position of not being able to be buffalo-ed by what the industry may say."

The Office of Financial Regulation oversees state-chartered banks, credit unions, finance companies, non-depository financial firms and some parts of the securities industry.