AFR and 12 organizations opposed the nomination of Eric Dreiband to serve as the Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.
The CFPB is exceeding its authority under the law that created the agency and would set a dangerous precedent with its “disclosure sandbox” policy, its label for granting companies exemptions from disclosure rules. The CFPB would allow firms to obfuscate or eliminate important information in the name of “financial innovation,” a label often applied to defend practices in mortgage lending that led to the 2008 crisis.
AFR joined a letter to the CFPB opposing their proposed policy to encourage trial disclosure programs.
We, the undersigned organizations, call on you to abandon your proposed reorganization of the
Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, and to remove Mr. Eric Blankenstein from having
any involvement in the Bureau’s oversight and enforcement of antidiscrimination laws. We have
long voiced strong concerns about your plans to relocate the Office of Fair Lending, and our
concerns have grown even stronger in light of the shocking revelations about Mr. Blankenstein’s
writings on issues of race.
Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund published a new report describing the history of the Volcker Rule and the efforts of the financial industry to undermine it. The Volcker Rule is a central element of post-crisis financial regulation that is intended to be a modern
October 1, 2018 Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFR Education Fund), sent a letter to the Federal Reserve in response to the recent letter from Senator Perdue and others. The Perdue letter urges regulators to view the implementation of S. 2155 as requiring extensive
September 27, 2018 Americans for Financial Reform sent a letter on behalf of the undersigned organizations, urging to Representatives to vote against HR 5381, the “GRATER Act”. HR 5381 mandates that Federal agencies transfer all credit and guarantee risk assumed by the government to the
Mulvaney chose Blankenstein as the policy associate director for supervision, enforcement, and fair lending. Under Mulvaney the CFPB has restructured the main office for fair lending, expressed interest in moving away from a key legal test for fair lending, and curbed enforcement of rules on predatory lenders that often target communities of color.
The banks that caused the 2008 financial crisis with their greed and recklessness are even bigger now than they were ten years ago. Separating risky investment banking and “boring” commercial banking will help prevent financial crises – and bailouts – and refocus banks on serving their customers. Not only would this make bank activities less risky, it would make the institutions smaller, breaking up megabanks and leveling the playing field for smaller banks.