team, Author at Americans for Financial Reform

Joint Letter: SEC Broker Proposal Fails To Establish Strong Standard or Mitigate Conflicts

The rule’s most significant failing is that it does not establish a clear uniform best interest standard, one that is no less stringent than that found in the Investment Advisers’ Act, for all professionals who provide investment advice to retail clients. Instead, it adopts a weaker standard for broker-dealers that falls short of a true best interest standard and does not adequately address the conflicts of interest that too often are permitted to taint broker-dealers’ recommendations.

AFR/CRL Poll Shows Wide Discontent With Mulvaney Path at CFPB

Voters of all political parties overwhelmingly oppose the actions taken by Mick Mulvaney to undermine the mission of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and feel a strong connection between lax enforcement of the rules on Wall Street and their daily welfare. Ten years after the 2008 financial crisis brought on a searing recession, the survey revealed enduring, strong, and bipartisan support for tougher regulation of Wall Street and predatory lenders.

AFR Conference: Regulating Wall Street Ten years Later

On July 24, Americans for Financial reform hosted a conference looking back at the response to the 2008 crisis, and towards future efforts to ensure that the financial system is more stable, and fair for all. Click here to access the agenda, video, and (soon) the transcript

Letters to Congress: AFR and three other organizations sent a joint letter to Congress urging opposition to HR 5059, the State Insurance Regulation Preservation Act.

On July 24, 2018, Americans for Financial Reform, the Center for Economic Justice, the Consumer Federation of America, and U.S. PIRG, sent a joint letter to members of the House Committee on Financial Services urging them to vote in opposition to HR 5059, the “State

Letters to Congress: Eleven organizations, including AFR, sent a joint letter to Congress urging opposition to H.R. 2570, the so-called Mortgage Fairness Act.

Americans for Financial Reform and ten other organizations sent a joint letter to members of the House Committee on Financial Services urging them to reject H.R. 2570, the Mortgage Fairness Act of 2017.

AFR Statement: Eight Years of Dodd-Frank, Ten Years After 2008 Financial Crisis

Nearly a decade after the crisis broke, we need the public interest, not Wall Street’s narrow pursuit of maximum benefits for a tiny few to guide financial policy. But Wall Street’s money is an enormously powerful force pushing the other way.

AFR Conference: Regulating Wall Street – Ten Years Later

Ten Years after the 2008 Financial Crisis, Where Do We Stand? A conference with Sens. Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren and regulators who helped respond.

AFR Statement: Kavanaugh and Anniversary of Wall Street Reform

Brett Kavanaugh’s ruling, later overturned by the full DC circuit, that an independant CFPB is unconstitutional, is but one powerful indicator of the danger he would pose as a Supreme Court justice. Stripping financial regulators like CFPB of their independence means weaker consumer protections.

AFR Statement: Hearing Shows Kraninger is No Champion of Consumers

There was no evidence before her confirmation hearing that Kathy Kraninger would champion the interests of consumers, and there’s no evidence of it afterwards either.

Congressional Testimony: AFR Policy Director Marcus Stanley testifies to House Financial Services Committee.

On July 17, 2018, AFR Policy Director Marcus Stanley offered testimony at a hearing entitled “Examining Capital Regimes for Financial Institutions,” before the Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee.