Kobliner, Ketchum Among Obama Appointees for 'Financial Literacy' Council

New York Times bestselling author Beth Kobliner and Richard Ketchum, CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) are among the dozen people President Barack Obama appointed to a new administration council designed to improve what the President calls "financial literacy" among American consumers.

The President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability will also include Ariel Investments CEO John W. Rogers, Jr., ex-YWCA CEO Lorraine Cole and Ted Beck, CEO of the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), the White House said in a statement today.

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In the wake of the most recent recession, Obama tried to curb predatory lending practices while providing more financial education to the American public . The President last month tapped Harvard University professor Elizabeth Warren to spearhead the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a regulatory body that would ban what he called "unfair" interest rate hikes and crack down on mortgage practice he termed "abusive."

With today's appointments, Obama included members of the private, public and nonprofit sectors to "greatly serve the American people as they work to improve financial literacy and promote services that will benefit consumers," the President said in the statement.

Kobliner wrote the New York Times bestseller, "Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties" and has written for publications such as The New York Times, Money and The Huffington Post.

Ketchum was CEO of New York Stock Exchange Regulation and general counsel of Citigroup Inc.'s (C) corporate and investment bank before heading FINRA.