Monthly Archives: March 2016

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AFR in the News: GE says lending unit shouldn’t face strict federal oversight (Washington Post)

“The [Metlife] decision is ‘really potentially damaging to the framework Dodd Frank set up to oversee nonfinancial institutions,’ said Marcus Stanley, policy director for Americans for Financial Reform. If the ruling is upheld, ‘FSOC would have a very hard time designating anybody in the future, even when they truly do pose risk to the financial system…'”

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Letter to Regulators: AFR Supports SEC Proposal to Restrict Derivatives Use at Mutual Funds

“… for many years the SEC did not sufficiently address the ways in which Investment Company Act restrictions can be violated through the use of derivatives. The SEC’s basic approach to derivatives risk at funds was set out in a series of releases and no-action letters between 1979 and the late 1980s. The fundamental approach adopted at that time was based on ‘offsetting’ or ‘coverage’ – that is, if a fund segregates assets deemed sufficient to ‘cover’ a derivatives risk, or an offsetting derivatives exposure, then derivatives usage would not violate ’40 Act limitations.”

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AFR in the News: Corinthian students may have a clearer path towards debt relief (Washington Post)

“The pace of relief for wronged Corinthian students…remains far too slow, and its scope frustratingly narrow,” said Alexis Goldstein, senior policy analyst at the progressive Americans for Financial Reform. She pointed out that only students who took out loans after July 2010 are eligible for debt cancellation, which excludes borrowers with old bank-based federal student loans.

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AFR in the News: Corinthian students may have a clearer path towards debt relief (Washington Post)

“The pace of relief for wronged Corinthian students…remains far too slow, and its scope frustratingly narrow,” said Alexis Goldstein, senior policy analyst at the progressive Americans for Financial Reform. She pointed out that only students who took out loans after July 2010 are eligible for debt cancellation, which excludes borrowers with old bank-based federal student loans.

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Letter to Regulators: Regulators Must Not Weaken Dodd-Frank Regulations in the Regulatory Review Process

“On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform, we are writing with regard to your current review of bank safety and soundness rules under the Economic Growth and Regulatory Paperwork Reduction Act of 1996 (EGRPRA) Notice #4 (December 23, 2015)… Reviewing these rules before they are finalized and while the process of implementation is still ongoing also carries the risk that the burden of implementation will be mistaken for the permanent effects of the rule.”

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AFR in the News: Coalition of Unions, Consumer Groups Press Regulators on Bank “Living Wills” (Wall St. Journal)

“Tuesday’s letter to the Fed and FDIC from Americans for Financial Reform… is the latest evidence that the agencies could face some backlash if their verdict is favorable to the industry. The coalition includes large unions and public interest groups with powerful pull in Washington… The coalition asks that regulators, if they decline to find banks’ plans not credible, provide the public with a detailed explanation of improvements banks have made in the living wills since the firms failed to pass regulatory muster in 2014.”

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Letter to Regulators: AFR Urges Federal Reserve and FDIC to Take Opportunity to End Too Big to Fail

“AFR sent a letter to banking regulators today concerning their review of bank resolution plans. The Dodd-Frank Act requires regulators to review these plans to ensure that major banks are no longer ‘too big to fail’ – that they can go through a conventional (Chapter 11) private bankruptcy in an orderly manner, without creating substantial economic disruption. “