Christopher Peterson to Join the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Professor Christopher Peterson has agreed to join the enforcement unit of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  The CFPB was formed as part of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 and stands to play a significant future role in protecting American consumers. 

According to the Salt Lake Tribune:  "Chris Peterson will take a leave from the U[niversity of Utah] law school to join the enforcement unit of the new bureau, charged with regulating everything from credit cards to mortgages.  He has called for a warning label on payday loans that would mark them as "predatory," and he has been critical of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS, a mega-company created by mortgage bankers that owns more than half of all residential mortgages and has been actively foreclosing on thousands of Americans.  'This appointment manifests the bureau’s willingness to appoint senior staff members who have staked out strong positions on the merits of highly contentious issues the bureau will be facing,' wrote Alan Kaplinsky, who writes the CFPB Monitor blog and represents companies involved in consumer lending."