U. Prof Joins Federal Consumer Financial Protection Unit

Salt Lake Tribune (UT)
May 9, 2012
Canham, Matt

University of Utah law professor Chris Peterson, a vocal critic of payday lending, will take a leave from his position to join the enforcement unit of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The agency is tasked with regulating everything from credit cards to mortgages. Peterson has called for a warning label on payday loans marking them as "predatory" and has criticized the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, which owns more than half of all U.S. home loans and has foreclosed on thousands of Americans. "He’s one of the leading scholars on consumer finance and predatory lending," according to Deepak Gupta, an appellate lawyer in Washington. "I think he’ll be a real resource for people in the agency." Peterson also has lobbied Congress and the federal government for tighter consumer lending policies on behalf of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Congress created the CFPB as part of the Dodd-Frank act in reaction to the housing bubble and financial collapse of 2007. It has been in operation since mid-2011.
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