Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Public Citizen submitted a joint comment letter to the SEC calling for mandatory climate and ESG disclosures for all issuers, in response to Commissioner Allison Herren Lee’s Request for Public Input. “A growing chorus of bipartisan U.S. financial regulators
Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Public Citizen were joined by 60 organizations and securities law experts in a comment letter to the SEC calling for mandatory climate and ESG disclosures for all issuers.
“As COVID-19 swept through New Jersey’s nursing homes, residents and workers got sick and died, families struggled to get basic information about their loved ones, and caregivers were rightly terrified that they would bring the virus back to their own families. What few realized is how a secret Wall Street takeover of much of the long-term care industry has amplified the health risks to those who live and work in nursing homes” according to AFR Senior Researcher Patrick Woodall and 1199SEIU Executive Vice President Milly Silva.
“Investors know that climate change is a threat that some companies aren’t taking seriously enough. They need information that lets them better understand climate risks and opportunities to see who they can trust to thrive in a low-carbon future economy.”
–Alex Martin, Senior Policy Analyst, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund
AFREF, NCLC, NFHA and NHLP sent a letter to the CFPB, FRB, FDIC, OCC, NCUA and CSBS asking the agencies to update the April 3, 2020 Joint Statement on Supervisory and Enforcement Practices Regarding the Mortgage Servicing Rules in Response to the COVID-19 Emergency and the CARES Act to restore key supervisory and enforcement tools to incentivize servicers to properly handle applications for loss mitigation assistance and require servicers to send loss mitigation notices to borrowers, which are especially critical as forbearances come to an end in the coming months.
AFREF, alongside 34 other organizations, joined a letter The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) submitted on June 7th to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) raising concerns about the dire state of financial reporting in Corporate America.
AFR joined partners to send a letter to Congress urging senators and representatives to ensure that civil rights enforcement is prioritized with increased funding in the FY 2022 appropriations cycle. The letter calls on Congress to double the funding provided to each of the civil rights offices across the federal government so that they are able to adequately respond to complaints of discrimination; proactively ensure compliance with the laws they enforce; provide guidance, regulation, and technical assistance to prevent discrimination; and collect and report data on equal opportunity across all domains of American life.
26 organizations, led by the Consumer Federation of America urge reconsideration of the DOL policy allowing defined contribution plans to invest in private equity funds. Issues raised to the DOL over its original letter considering allowing such funds into private equity include: It fails to give
AFR and 68 organizations sent a letter to Congress in support of the Veterans and Consumers Fair Credit Act, which would extend the Military Lending Act’s 36% interest rate cap on consumer loans to all Americans.
On May 24th, AFR Policy Director Marcus Stanley participated in a virtual conference organized by the University of Colorado Law School.