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Analysis: Antitrust and Banking Agencies Must Block Capital One-Discover Merger

The $35 billion takeover bid would vault Capital One into 6th place among the biggest U.S. banks and create the largest U.S. credit card lender, ahead of current leader JPMorgan Chase. This new company could raise prices for cardholders, especially lower-income consumers and Black and Latine households and give Capital One the power to jack up debit card fees on merchants. In short, it would reinforce the megabank monopoly power that is already a serious problem in the American economy. The Biden administration must stand up for consumers, communities, and small businesses and block the Capital One-Discover merger.

Letters to Congress: Letter in Opposition to H.R. 2799, the Expanding Access to Capital Act

AFREF led a sign-on letter in opposition to H.R. 2799, the Expanding Access to Capital Act of 2024, along with the 10 undersigned organizations. Fundamentally, H.R. 2799 weakens regulation of both the public markets and the private markets, making it a bad deal for investors of all types, and a boon to issuers interested in raising capital with the lowest possible degree of disclosure, compliance, accountability, and overall economic inefficiency.

Event: Reparations: How to Fund Them & Avoid a Wall Street Takeover

Reparations: How to Fund Them & Avoid a Wall Street Takeover is a fireside chat with Jeremy Bearer-Friend (George Washington University Law) and Alvin Velazquez (SEIU) moderated by Ericka Taylor (Take On Wall Street and Americans for Financial Reform). Join us on March 7, 2024, at 2:00 PM, as Taylor lays out the case for reparations and the current landscape, then learn more about Bearer-Friend’s proposal, followed by Velazquez sharing lessons learned from labor unions’ pension funds experience.

Letters to Regulators: IOSCO Should Explicitly Acknowledge That Environmental and Social Integrity Are Critical Components of the Market Integrity of Carbon Credits

Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF) submitted a comment letter on The Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)’s Consultation Report outlining a proposed set of Good Practices to promote the integrity and orderly functioning of Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCMs).  IOSCO has

In The News: Commentary: Crisis at Steward Health highlights private equity’s threat to healthcare (The Dorchester Reporter)

“Steward is a prime example of private equity’s business model of extracting short-term profits from entities before selling them off,” said Robert Seifert, senior fellow at Americans for Financial Reform. “In the case of health care, this can leave critical service providers worse off financially, with more money going to Wall Street and less toward long-term viability, hospital staffing, and patient care,” he added.