Mr. Cook, a native of Buffalo, New York, received a BA degree in history and political science from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio and a Juris Doctor degree from Boston College Law School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Robert E. Cook served as a trial attorney in the Housing and Credit Section of the Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice and thereafter as the CRA/Fair Lending Section Chief at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. After several years in private practice and as a co-developer of affordable housing in the Washington, DC area, he returned to the public sector in 1991 as a Congressional legislative counsel.
In March 1994, Mr. Cook joined the staff at the Federal Reserve Board where he serves as counsel on both predatory and fair lending policy and enforcement issues with respect to bank examinations, complaint investigations, merger and expansion applications, community affairs, and regulatory review. Mr. Cook chaired the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council subcommittee that developed the current Interagency Fair Lending Examination Procedures.
Mr. Cook also co-authored a Federal Reserve Bulletin , published in September 2005, which analyzed the 2004 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data.
In December 2005, Mr. Cook retired from the Federal Reserve and subsequently joined Countrywide Home Loans as Special Counsel.
