US Rep Frank eyes Warren as top financial watchdog

WASHINGTON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - A top Democratic lawmaker would like Elizabeth Warren, the watchdog for the government's $700-billion financial bailout program, to head a new agency to protect consumers from risky financial products.

Warren was an early supporter of the idea of creating a new agency, which the Obama administration is now proposing. She has been rumored for months to be the Democrats' top pick to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA).

"I am very much in favor of Elizabeth Warren," to head the consumer agency, U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank told reporters on Tuesday.

Outspoken and widely interviewed in the media, Warren is a Harvard Law School professor. She now chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

While overseeing the TARP, she has pushed back against banking regulators and financial services industry lobbyists as both have criticized the CFPA proposal.

Frank is steering financial regulation reforms through the House. His panel has passed a bill to create the new agency, which would regulate mortgages, credit cards and other financial products.

After his panel passed the bill, Warren expressed delight that the banking lobby was not able to derail the plan.

"When I first came to Washington with the idea of this agency, everyone told me 'the banks always win...' They didn't win today," she said.

(Reporting by Kim Dixon and Rachelle Younglai; Editing by Diane Craft)