“This rule is a crucial step to limit big banks’ and other financial companies’ efforts to escape liability if they break the law. Congressional or industry interference with the CFPB’s rulemaking process on forced arbitration would undermine consumer protection for critical financial products and services.”
“Under the terms of the CFPB’s proposal, consumers and companies would remain perfectly free to resolve disputes through arbitration, but it would be a voluntary act on both sides. What the CFPB is seeking to regulate is involuntary arbitration, dictated and controlled by banks and financial companies through take it-or-leave-it contracts with consumers. More specifically, its proposal would bar companies from compelling consumers to sign away the right to join forces to challenge a practice that injures many people at once.”
“We… urge you to oppose any funding bills that include provisions rolling back or undermining financial reform. At the end of last year Congress wisely rejected multiple efforts to use the budget process to force through unrelated ideological riders, including changes in financial regulation that would undermine consumer protections, endanger financial security, or reduce accountability for big banks. It is vitally important that members remain committed to opposing such riders again this year. “
“On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform, we are writing to express our opposition to the “SEC Regulatory Accountability Act”. Despite the fact that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is already subject to extensive statutory economic analysis requirements, and has greatly increased its investment in economic analysis in recent years, this legislation would impose a host of unworkable new bureaucratic and administrative burdens on the agency. “
“On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform, we are writing to express our opposition to the “Investment Advisors Modernization Act of 2016”. Far from modernizing the regulation of investment advisors, this legislation would roll back the clock to the years before private fund advisors were subject to elementary oversight measures, measures that numerous documented abuses have shown to be necessary for investor protection. “
“We, the undersigned organizations, ask you to oppose harmful riders to the Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) fiscal year 2017 appropriations that would obstruct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability to protect consumers. In particular, we urge you to oppose language mirroring S. 2663, the so-called “Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act.” “
“Google announced Wednesday that it would ban advertisements for payday loans and related products on its website, saying that they often lead to unaffordable repayment terms and financial harm to consumers… Lisa Donner, the executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, said in a statement that Google’s new standards would stop abusive lenders from marketing what she described as ‘debt-trap products that do serious and lasting harm to consumers.’”
“To its considerable credit, Google has decided to stop running search ads for debt-trap payday loans. This decision, which follows a similar announcement by Facebook last year, closes off an important avenue of customer recruitment for an industry that is doing more and more of its business online. Payday loans, whether made through physical or virtual storefronts, are engineered to suck people into long-term triple-digit-interest debt, making their financial problems worse, not better.”
“Unlawful monitoring fee deductions… have been claimed by the private equity industry on an annual basis for many years… Hundreds of millions, if not billions, of tax revenue is lost each and every year of enforcement delay because of the statute of limitations. We hope and expect the IRS to actively, vigorously, and expeditiously enforce current law with respect to ongoing monitoring fee arrangements.”
“The undersigned organizations strongly urge the Appropriations Committees to reject all proposals to weaken the powers, structure, or funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau). And we are writing today to specifically urge the Committees to oppose any proposals that would limit, delay or remove the authority of the CFPB to take action on the use of pre-dispute binding mandatory arbitration – i.e., forced arbitration – in consumer financial contracts under its jurisdiction. “