WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama intends to nominate former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray to lead a new consumer financial protection bureau that was a central feature of a law that overhauled banking regulations.

Obama plans to announce the nomination formally today, the White House said in a statement Sunday. Republicans immediately threatened to block his Senate confirmation.

In choosing Cordray, Obama bypassed Elizabeth Warren, a favorite of consumer groups, who has been assembling the agency as a special adviser to the White House and to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

The agency will officially begin its oversight and regulatory work on July 21. Its role is to be a government watchdog over mortgages, credit cards and other forms of lending.

“Richard Cordray has spent his career advocating for middle-class families, from his tenure as Ohio’s attorney general, to his most recent role as heading up the enforcement division at the CFPB and looking out for ordinary people in our financial system,” Obama said in a statement.

Warren, who is considered the architect of the consumer bureau, faced stiff Republican opposition in the Senate and would have had a difficult time wining confirmation.

The financial industry lined up against Warren. Bankers said a Warren-run agency would restrict new products just when companies are seeking to replace profits squeezed by the new financial rules.

But Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, said Republicans would block Cordray as well unless Obama seeks changes in the agency.

“Until President Obama addresses our concerns by supporting a few reasonable structural changes, we will not confirm anyone to lead it,” Shelby said. “No accountability, no confirmation.”

Cordray’s elevation from enforcement chief to director raises a separate concern for the industry: Some fear the agency will launch early enforcement actions designed to raise its public profile. Treasury officials said that’s unlikely, because the agency’s enforcement division still is making key decisions about policy and procedure.

Cordray, 52, is considered a Warren ally and has been working with her as director of enforcement for the agency.

Republicans fought fiercely against the creation of the bureau last year and have been trying to place restrictions on the agency. In May, all Senate Republicans joined in a letter to Obama threatening to withhold their support for any nominee to the position if the White House didn’t seek significant changes to the agency.

Among the changes would be to replace a single director with a board and to make the bureau’s finances subject to congressional approval.

Though Democrats control the Senate, Republicans could block Cordray’s appointment through a filibuster.