CFPB Names New Chiefs for Supervision and Enforcement Positions

On October 29, 2021, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a press release naming Lorelei Salas as Assistant Director for the Office of Supervision Policy and Eric Halperin as Assistant Director for the Office of Enforcement.

“Lorelei Salas and Eric Halperin are both distinguished public servants with deep expertise in consumer protection,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “Together, they will be effective watchdogs over the financial marketplace, especially when it comes to stopping repeat offenders.”

Lorelei Salas will be joining the CFPB as Assistant Director for Supervision Policy and will also serve as the Acting Assistant Director for Supervision Examinations. From 2016 to 2021, Ms. Salas served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, overseeing hundreds of inspectors, attorneys, and other professionals to protect city residents. Under her leadership, the agency aggressively pursued corporations that employed unlawful, predatory practices to target low-income and immigrant consumers. Previously, Ms. Salas was the legal director at Make the Road New York, supervising immigration, housing, and employment legal services programs designed to increase access to justice for immigrants and refugees. She also led the legal department at Catholic Migration Services, supervising the same areas of legal practice. In 2009, Ms. Salas was nominated by President Obama as the Wage and Hour Administrator at the United States Department of Labor. Ms. Salas also worked at the New York State Attorney General’s Office in the Litigation and Labor Bureaus and held multiple senior management positions at the New York State Department of Labor. Ms. Salas is also the recipient of Open Society Foundations’ Leadership in Government fellowship and has served as a Fulbright Specialist with expertise in U.S. consumer and worker protection laws. Prior to her legal career, Ms. Salas worked as a private sector auditor investigating companies’ compliance with their own codes of conduct and with federal and state workplace laws. Ms. Salas earned an A.A. from La Guardia Community College, a B.A. from Hunter College, and a J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School.

Eric Halperin has joined the CFPB as Assistant Director for the Office of Enforcement. Mr. Halperin has served in a number of positions in the non-profit and government sectors. Most recently, Mr. Halperin was CEO of Civil Rights Corps. From 2010 to 2014, Mr. Halperin served in leadership roles in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, first as Special Counsel for Fair Lending and later as Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General overseeing the Division’s fair housing, fair lending, and employment enforcement programs. While in those roles, he received the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award, the Department’s highest award for excellence in legal performance, and the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award. He also served as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division from 1998 to 2004. Mr. Halperin has also worked as a senior advisor to Open Society Foundations’ U.S. Program and as the Director of the Center for Responsible Lending's Litigation Program and its Washington office. Mr. Halperin received his B.A. from Wesleyan University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.