Ex-Obama Civil Rights Official Named Chief Enforcement Official for CFPB

Source: Bloomberg Law

Eric Halperin, a longtime consumer advocate, fair lending litigator and civil rights official at the Justice Department in the Obama administration, has been named enforcement chief at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, sources said.

Halperin is the first big hire by CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, who is starting to fill out top management roles since taking over the agency on Oct. 12. Chopra still has several high-level vacancies to fill, including general counsel and associate director of supervision, enforcement and fair lending.

Halperin had been CEO of Civil Rights Corps, a Washington nonprofit focused on injustice in the U.S. legal system. Before that he was a senior advisor at the Open Society Foundations, a grantmaking network founded by the hedge fund billionaire George Soros. He also previously worked at the Center for Responsible Lending. He served two stints at the Justice Department over nearly 10 years. He served as acting deputy assistant attorney general and as a special counsel for fair lending in the Obama administration from 2010 to 2014.