With the announcement Wednesday that Richard Cordray would resign from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency is undoubtedly headed in a new direction.

The change will be most welcome from the financial services industry’s perspective. Credit union and banking advocacy groups issued numerous statements following the Cordray news, hoping that new agency direction will lean toward less regulation and relief for smaller financial institutions.

“NAFCU appreciates CFPB Director Richard Cordray’s willingness to meet with credit unions and hear their concerns about the impact of the CFPB’s rules,” Dan Berger, president and CEO of the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions, said in a said in a statement. “We continue to believe that credit unions should never have been lumped into the same regulatory bucket as the big banks and look forward to continuing to work with new leadership to address credit union issues.”

“While we haven’t always agreed with Director Corday on issues, we have always shared his goal of wanting to help consumers and appreciated his willingness to engage with us,” American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols said in a said in a statement. “Consumers are our customers, and nothing is more important to America’s banks than maintaining their trust and confidence. We will continue to work with the CFPB under its new leadership to ensure consumers have access to the increasing variety of credit and financial tools they demand, with the full protections they deserve.”

Cordray, previously Ohio’s attorney general, first joined the CFPB as its assistant director of enforcement and was named director in a recess appointment in 2012, eventually winning confirmation in 2013 to a five-year term as director.

He is expected to run for the Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Throughout his term, Cordray did have many Democratic allies, and received strong support from Massachusetts. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a staunch opponent of Trump and Republicans, following his resignation.

“From the day that the agency opened its doors, the CFPB has been targeted by Republicans and their Wall Street bank allies. They attacked the agency at every turn, and tried to stop it from helping consumers,” Warren said in a statement Wednesday. “They tried to smear Rich Cordray and the good people at the agency who were just trying to make things better for working families. And they are still chomping at the bit to do exactly that. We need to make sure that the next leader of the CFPB builds on the agency’s good work – rather than reversing it.”

But whether Cordray stayed through his term or not, changes at the agency that has been widely criticized by President Donald Trump and Republicans have been imminent.

Trump, who will choose the next leader of the CFPB, recently cast a devastating blow to Cordray when he signed into law a repeal of the CFPB’s proposed rule banning mandatory arbitration clauses, which would have made it easier for consumers to file class-action lawsuits against financial institutions.

U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) was also certainly no friend of Cordray during his tenure, calling for his termination, and filing a bill that would have greatly reined in the power of the CFPB.

“We are long overdue for new leadership at the CFPB, a rogue agency that has done more to hurt consumers than help them. The CFPB tramples on the fundamental economic rights of American citizens, taking away their choices and opportunities,” Hensarling said in a statement following Cordray’s resignation. “The extreme overregulation it imposes on our economy leads to higher costs and less access to financial products and services, particularly for Americans with lower and middle incomes.  It has routinely denied market participants their due process rights. All this harm is made even worse by the fact that the CFPB is structurally unconstitutional and completely unaccountable to the American people.”