Financial Law Expert Neil Peretz Joins BillFloat as General Counsel

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- BillFloat, a leading provider of flexible credit services that help consumers manage cash flow challenges, today announced that prominent consumer credit advocate and financial law expert Neil Peretz has joined the company as General Counsel from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the CFPB), where he was a co-founder of the Office of Enforcement.

In his new role at BillFloat, Peretz will support the development of innovative new products to serve evolving consumer finance needs, as well as oversee compliance and regulatory relations for the company.

BillFloat, which already boasts more than 1 million registered users, provides consumers with affordable, on-demand access to the money they need to pay bills, get cash and purchase high-cost items. The service gives customers more time to pay more than 2,500 billers, while its SmartLine offers a flexible line of credit for immediate access to cash, and its SmartPay lets consumers purchase smartphones with monthly payments, all with a fast, easy and secure online application and approval process.

"BillFloat has pioneered an entirely new approach to consumer finance that addresses a significant void in the marketplace," Peretz said. "By going beyond just the basic credit score to determine creditworthiness with a proprietary real-time decisioning system, BillFloat gives consumers direct, instant access to the credit they need to meet their immediate short-term obligations and protect their financial future."  

Peretz, who led numerous legal investigations and helped author the CFPB's first substantive rulemaking on electronic funds transfers, was also a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice's Corporate and Financial Law section, and served at the Securities and Exchange Commission, as a U.S. diplomat to the People's Republic of China, and as an investment banker.

He is a Certified Information Privacy Professional, a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States and the State Bar of California, where he was recently appointed to the Consumer Financial Services Standing Committee of the Business Law Section. Peretz holds an LLM from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium where he was a Fulbright Scholar, a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, bachelors and masters degrees from Tufts University, and he was awarded a Specialization in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution from the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

In addition to his extensive legal and financial experience, he is also a serial entrepreneur, having served as co-founder, CEO, CFO and COO of multiple Silicon Valley startups.

"Neil's deep and diverse experience in consumer credit, financing and regulatory compliance is a tremendous asset to our team," said BillFloat co-founder and CEO Ryan Gilbert. "We are eager to apply his expertise as we move forward in developing the creative financial solutions that both consumers and small businesses desperately need to navigate this tough financial climate."

For more information about BillFloat's innovative consumer credit delivery, including its More-Time-to-Pay (MTP) platform, visit www.billfloat.com.

About BillFloat, Inc.
BillFloat provides innovative credit solutions that give consumers broader, on-demand access to credit, offering them more time to pay bills, ongoing access to cash and the ability to get high-cost items like smartphones with monthly payments. Its More-Time-To-Pay (MTP) platform (www.moretime2pay.com) connects lenders with retailers and service providers to provide instant financing solutions for consumers and small businesses. The MTP platform delivers these instant financing solutions online, in-store and via mobile. BillFloat, based in San Francisco, was founded in 2009 by a team of experienced financial services entrepreneurs with backing from leading venture capital firms.

SOURCE BillFloat