Cara Petersen, Enforcement Director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), has stepped away from her role, citing the White House’s overhaul of the agency had made her position untenable.
As Enforcement Director for the CFPB, Petersen was responsible for overseeing the Bureau’s enforcement activities, such as investigating and taking action against entities that violate consumer financial laws. The role involves determining whether to open investigations, coordinating enforcement actions with other agencies, and ensuring that appropriate remedies are pursued to compensate harmed consumers.
Petersen, who has served at the CFPB since its formation nearly 15 years ago, said in an email announcing her resignation that President Donald Trump “has no intention to enforce the law in any meaningful way.”
She continued, “I have served under every Director and Acting Director in the Bureau’s history, and never before have I seen the ability to perform our core mission so under attack.”
Petersen joined the CFPB in March 2011 during the implementation phase of the agency. Prior to assuming the Principal Deputy role, she served as a Litigation Deputy and an Assistant Litigation Deputy in the Office of Enforcement. Prior to joining the CFPB, Petersen was an Attorney at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), handling consumer protection investigations in the FTC’s Division of Financial Practices. Before that, she was a litigator at Arnold & Porter.
The CFPB, often targeted for reform by the Trump administration, recently avoided being shut down as U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied actions by the Trump administration from firing Bureau employees, and ordered the reinstatement of workers who were previously terminated. In Civil Action No. 25-0381, National Treasury Employees Union v. Russell Vought (in his official capacity as Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and other groups sued Acting CFPB Director Vought over the dismantling of the Bureau, arguing the effort violates the separation of powers between the branches of government. NTEU represents more than 1,000 frontline employees.
Petersen added in her resignation memo: “It has been devastating to see the Bureau’s enforcement function being dismantled through thoughtless reductions in staff, inexplicable dismissals of cases, and terminations of negotiated settlements that let wrongdoers off the hook.”
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