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News Release: AFR Education Fund Statement on Office of Financial Research Staff Working Paper on the Volcker Rule

This new paper does not contradict previous comprehensive studies finding that liquidity in the corporate bond market has been robust and has shown no signs of deterioration over the period in which the Volcker Rule was implemented. The OFR staff working paper does find evidence that banks affected by the Volcker Rule charge significantly lower markups for newly issued bonds they underwrite (that are exempt from most Volcker Rule restrictions on proprietary trading) than they do for other types of bond trades covered by the Volcker Rule.

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Joint Statement: Advocates Oppose FHFA’s Decision to Remove Language Preference Question from Loan Application

The Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) Language Access Task Force strongly opposes the decision announced yesterday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to remove the question about a borrower’s language preference from the revised Uniform Residential Loan Application (URLA). The Task Force members include the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, the Center for Responsible Lending, Connecticut Fair Housing Center, Consumer Action, Empire Justice Center, NAACP, National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD), National Consumer Law Center, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, and National Fair Housing Alliance.

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Report: Pirate Equity: How Wall Street Firms are Pillaging American Retail

New report revealing how in the last 10 years, a staggering 597,000 people working at retail companies owned by private equity firms and hedge funds have lost their jobs. An estimated additional 728,000 indirect jobs have been lost at suppliers and local businesses, meaning Wall Street’s gamble on retail has led to more than 1.3 million job losses in total.

In the News: Private Equity’s Role in Retail has Decimated 1.3 Million Jobs, Study Says (Washington Post)

In practice, that meant they often sold off real estate holdings, cut workers’ pay and benefits, and did away with jobs to turn a quick profit for investors, according to Heather Slavkin Corzo, a senior fellow at Americans for Financial Reform and the director of capital markets policy for the labor union AFL-CIO. “When a private equity firm steps in, it’s a classic case of ‘heads I win, tails you lose,” Corzo said. “They have a real short-term focus on extracting as much cash as possible, as quickly as possible.”

In the News: Chase For Yield Has Fueled Private Equity With Significant Consequences For Americans (Forbes)

Lisa Donner, Executive Director of Americans for Financial Reform, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit consumer advocacy organization strongly supports the bill. “These powerful interests have rigged the rules to enable financial engineering that lets a tiny handful of people extract vast wealth at everyone else’s expense. It is time to change the laws to protect workers, communities, and pensions.”

Take Action: Stop Wall Street’s Raids on our Economy

Our economy is in crisis. Wall Street billionaires have bought our politicians and engineered our laws to make it easier to buy and pillage major companies, line their own pockets, and escape consequences it has on working people and our communities when the company fails.

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Letters to Regulators: AFR Education Fund letter to the SEC opposing cross-border rule proposal

On July 23, 2019, AFR Education Fund submitted a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) opposing a proposal that would create exemptions that would permit U.S. banks – and international banks active in the U.S. market – to do large-scale derivatives dealing in the U.S. without being designated as derivatives dealers under Dodd-Frank Act rules.

In the News: Why is Trump’s Consumer Protection Agency Helping to Promote H&R Block’s Credit Card? (LA Times)

“Financial education isn’t going to stop a company from misapplying your mortgage payment or the wrongful repossession of a car,” observes Linda Jun, a senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform. “The financial crisis wasn’t about people suddenly forgetting how to save. That was a very minor aspect of what happened. There were these bad actors that preyed on people with deceptive fees and unfair practices and discrimination. The point of having a financial regulator that protects consumers is to bring these shady behaviors to an end.”