Former Wall Street investor Steven Mnuchin installed as US Treasury secretary

US President Donald Trump watches as newly sworn-in Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks after taking the oath of office at the White House on February 13, 2017 in Washington, DC. (AFP photo)

US President Donald Trump has sworn in former Wall Street investor Steven Mnuchin as the head of the Treasury Department, despite his involvement in thousands of foreclosures after the 2007-2009 US housing collapse.

Mnuchin took the oath of office on Monday at the White House, after the US Senate voted to confirm him as secretary of the Treasury 53-47, with all but one Democratic senator opposing him due to his aggressive foreclosures on homeowners as head of OneWest Bank.

During the swearing-in ceremony, Trump said Mnuchin would be a "great champion" for American citizens.

"He will fight for middle-class tax reductions, financial reforms that open up lending and create millions of new jobs, and fiercely defend the American tax dollar and your financial security," Trump said. "And he will also defend our manufacturing jobs from those who cheat and steal and rob us blind."

Mnuchin, 54, will help drive the Trump administration’s plans to overhaul the US tax code, renegotiate trade deals around the world and remake financial regulations.

During his lengthy and at times contentious confirmation hearing, Mnuchin came under fire from Democratic lawmakers over his 2009 acquisition of OneWest Bank, which subsequently foreclosed on more than 36,000 homeowners, drawing charges from housing advocates that it was a "foreclosure machine."

A second-generation Goldman Sachs banker, Mnuchin has been painted as a symbol of everything that is wrong with corporate America.

“He was part of the cadre of corporate raiders that brought our economy to its knees,” Senator Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, said on the Senate floor on Monday.

Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois, described him as “greedy” and “unethical.” Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, referred to Mnuchin as the “foreclosure king.”

"Whether illegally foreclosing on thousands of families, skirting the law with offshore tax havens or helping design tactics that contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, Steve Mnuchin made a career — and millions of dollars — pioneering increasingly deceptive and predatory ways to rob hardworking Americans of their savings and homes,” Duckworth said.