The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved a new standard from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) that clarifies the “General Responsibilities” of an auditor in conducting a public company audit. AFREF and Public Citizen submitted a comment to the PCAOB on the proposed standard.
Americans for Financial Reform joined a coalition letter to the California Assembly Natural Resources Committee supporting the passage of SB 219 offering technical amendments to the recently passed historic Senate Bill 253, the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, and Senate Bill 261, the Climate-related Financial
Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund filed an amicus brief in the 8th Circuit. View or download a PDF of the brief here. Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund joined Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and Sierra Club Foundation in an
Today, a coalition of public interest organizations filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit defending the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against challenges to its final rule requiring public companies to disclose climate-related risks to their businesses and plans to manage or mitigate them. The SEC rule aligns with the growing consensus among investors and financial regulators in the U.S. and around the world that climate change poses significant risks to financial systems, and that securities regulators have an important role to play in mitigating those risks.
Today, 35 community, civil rights, consumer, and advocacy organizations called on presidential candidates to confront junk fees as a part of any future economic agenda. As President Biden highlights the success of his crackdown on junk fees – especially credit card late fees – presidential candidates should promise to protect people from unfair, undisclosed fees. Junk fees cost families tens of billions yearly. They inhibit competition and hurt consumers, workers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs. Fighting them is immensely popular.
AFREF submitted a comment regarding a request for information on uses, opportunities, and risks of artificial intelligence in the financial services sector. The comment notes that while artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning and generative models, could potentially transform the financial services industry, insufficiently robust AI regulatory oversight and supervision can harm consumers by amplifying discriminatory patterns in credit markets, increasing consumer costs, and creating barriers to accessible credit. To address these harms, federal regulators should pursue a rights-based and not solely a risk-based approach.
Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and the Center for Responsible Lending support the rule to prohibit creditors and consumer reporting agencies from using medical debt information for credit eligibility determinations. The rule is essential to protect families from the negative impacts of medical debt on their health and their finances. But the rule is especially important to protect Black, Latine, and other people of color who are more likely to have medical debt burdens.
Today, over 100 consumer, civil rights, military, legal services, and community groups submitted comments in strong support of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) proposed rule to ban medical debt from credit reports. The proposal would stop credit reporting companies from sharing medical debts with lenders and prohibit lenders from making lending decisions based on medical information. The proposed rule is part of the CFPB’s efforts to address the burden of medical debt and coercive credit reporting practices.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a critical interagency effort that aims to protect consumers from solar fraud and scams, clamp down on bad actors and practices in the industry, promote safe green lending that can benefit consumers and responsible solar businesses, and mitigate climate change. This move comes as more consumers are being marketed and offered loans and leases for green products and projects, due in part to new federal financial incentives that make them more affordable
AFR led a letter signed by 45 environmental justice, energy, consumer, housing, and other organizations urging federal agencies to (1) require consumer protection plans for green lending products across all federal programs, and (2) provide oversight and enforcement around existing consumer protection laws which apply to these