Americans for Financial Reform endorses Rep. Green’s “Systemic Risk Authority Transparency Act” that would require banking agencies to report any future uses of the systemic risk exception under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
AFR and 30 civil rights, labor, community, consumer protection, and economic justice organizations sent a letter calling on the Senate to swiftly act to defend the statutorily mandated independence of financial regulators in the face of unprecedented attacks and firings of commissioners and board members.
Americans for Financial Reform and five other public interest organizations submitted a letter urging U.S. Senators to oppose the nomination of Michelle Bowman to serve as Vice Chair for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Increasing the tax on corporate stock buybacks encourages investments in the real economy, discourages excessive executive compensation that widens economic inequality, and raises funds to protect healthcare, nutrition, and other programs that help working families. Raising the buybacks tax to 4 percent would generate $166 billion in revenue over the next decade, and encourage companies to reinvest in workers and innovation instead of inflating their share prices and juicing executive compensation.
Congress, its eye on a futuristic form of finance, is debating legislation that would legitimize stablecoins, a specific type of cryptocurrency linked to the U.S. dollar. But lawmakers eager to do the bidding of this new industry are ignoring the transformation of the American regulatory system and allegations of corruption in the second Trump administration.
The Consumer Federation of America, Americans for Financial Reform, Public Citizen and U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) called on the nation’s insurance firms to stop underwriting oil and gas projects, along with investing in fossil-fuel companies. The groups say backing fossil-fuel companies causes consumers’ insurance premiums to grow annually.
Americans for Financial Reform has been leading on opposition to the FIRM Act. This bill would force bank regulators to specifically disregard one category of significant financial risk – reputational risk – when assessing a bank for safety and soundness. Additionally, the bill would further
The House majority has just chosen to prioritize Wall Street and billionaires over everyday people by advancing legislation that would strip away funds for healthcare and nutrition to give big corporations and the super-rich tax breaks. Adding insult to injury, they also voted to make people’s lives harder and less secure by giving Wall Street, big banks, and abusive financial companies free rein to fleece the rest of us.
Today, the House Financial Services Committee completed a two-day markup of 25 bills, the bulk of which seek to undermine investor protections, threaten the securities market stability, and erode safety and soundness of the banking system. Much of the legislation advanced in these mark-ups fulfills specific recommendations by the extremist Project 2025.
Today, the House voted to rubber stamp bank mergers and accelerate the consolidation of the banking industry, harming depositors, small businesses, and communities. The vote is a giant gift to Wall Street banks and corporate monopolists. The repeal of this rule further threatens the stability of our banking and financial system and leaves families, communities, small businesses, and consumers more vulnerable to increased costs to access banking and financial services.