Ten years after the financial crisis, a majority of members of the Congress that wrapped up work in 2018 voted again and again for bills pushed by the bank lobby that endanger financial stability, undermine consumer and investor protections, and enable racial discrimination in lending. The change in control of the House and a heightened awareness of the dangers posed by these actions provide an opportunity to see what changes in the 116th Congress.
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“Did anyone take Internet Security 101?” says Linda Jun, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform. “I always tell my elderly parents, whatever you do, don’t click on anything! How do you know it’s legit? How do you know it isn’t a scam?”
Stop the Debt Trap coalition launched the Payday Loan Debt Trap Tracker, an online tool visualizing the fees paid by American consumers to payday and car-title lenders. The debt trap – conservatively measured – drains consumers of almost $6.4 billion in fees annually, or $213 per second.
Today, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposed drastic changes to its Disparate Impact rule that would effectively dismantle the Fair Housing Act’s protections against systemic discrimination.
Consumer watchdog groups urged the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in a letter sent today to take action immediately to implement the payment provisions in its payday lending rule, whose compliance date is August 19, 2019.
This new paper does not contradict previous comprehensive studies finding that liquidity in the corporate bond market has been robust and has shown no signs of deterioration over the period in which the Volcker Rule was implemented. The OFR staff working paper does find evidence that banks affected by the Volcker Rule charge significantly lower markups for newly issued bonds they underwrite (that are exempt from most Volcker Rule restrictions on proprietary trading) than they do for other types of bond trades covered by the Volcker Rule.
The Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) Language Access Task Force strongly opposes the decision announced yesterday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to remove the question about a borrower’s language preference from the revised Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA). The Task Force members include the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, the Center for Responsible Lending, Connecticut Fair Housing Center, Consumer Action, Empire Justice Center, NAACP, National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD), National Consumer Law Center, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, and National Fair Housing Alliance.
Tomorrow marks one hundred fifty days since Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger committed to quickly filling the nation’s top student loan watchdog position—a role that has been vacant for almost a year. As student debt nears $1.6 trillion and predatory practices plague the market, the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF) are releasing a roundup of failures by the current CFPB Director to stand up for student loan borrowers.
Vox article quotes Heather Slavkin-Corzo, senior fellow at Americans for Financial Reform and director of capital markets policy for the AFL-CIO: “When a private equity firm steps in, it’s a classic case of ‘Heads I win, tails you lose’ … They have a real short-term focus on extracting as much cash as possible, as quickly as possible.”
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