WASHINGTON — Payday lenders, money transfer agencies, credit bureaus and debt collectors, take notice: the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is coming after you, and quickly.

The recess appointment of Richard Cordray on Wednesday as director of the consumer bureau finally gives the fledgling agency the legal standing to supervise those types of financial enterprises, something it has lacked since the bureau was created with the signing of the Dodd-Frank financial regulation act in July 2010.

Although the Dodd-Frank law authorized the consumer agency to regulate the so-called nonbank financial companies, which previously had little supervision, the law was purposely written such that the bureau could not invoke its powers until it had a director.

The bureau had taken responsibility for existing regulations on consumer products at banks and thrifts, it was not able to write new regulations for banking products like mortgages and credit cards until it had a permanent leader.

“Now, with a director, the C.F.P.B. can exercise its full authorities — with respect to both banks and nonbanks — to help those markets operate fairly, transparently, and competitively,” Mr. Cordray, a former Ohio attorney general, said in a blog post Wednesday on the bureau’s Web site. read more