Category Archives: AFR in the News

In the News: FDIC to Ease Banks’ Living-Will Mandates, Acting Chair Says

“Deemphasizing orderly resolution planning heightens the chances that floundering banks will be unprepared and more likely to fail,” said Patrick Woodall, managing director for policy at Americans for Financial Reform, a Washington-based coalition of consumer and investor advocates.”

In the News: Consumer Bureau Seeks to Undo Settlement and Repay Mortgage Lender

Christine Chen Zinner, a senior lawyer at Americans for Financial Reform, a progressive advocacy group, called the consumer bureau’s attempt to overturn the settlement “bananacakes.” The appellate panel’s unanimous decision that the fair-lending law applied was a clear signal that the case had merit, she said.

In the News: Consumers need the CFPB. Remember the Great Recession?

As Christine Chen Zinner, a senior policy counsel at the nonprofit Americans for Financial Reform, pointed out in an interview, the agency has been politically under siege since its creation. “We have a bad feeling about the direction that it’s going,” she said. “This is an agency that was created after a devastating financial crisis because there were regulatory gaps.”

In the News: Don’t Let Insurers Get Away With Fleecing Homeowners

As climate-fueled disasters escalate, insurers are getting richer while leaving Americans in the lurch. Citing climate-related losses, many insurance companies are exorbitantly inflating rates, refusing to renew policies, and delaying, denying, or underpaying claims.

In the News: ‘We are here to fight back’: hundreds protest suspension of US financial watchdog

Chants of “let us work!” rang out across the courtyard of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) blocks away from the White House on Monday, as hundreds of angry protesters rallied against the Trump administration’s decision to suspend all operations at the US’s top financial watchdog – an agency that has clawed back more than $21bn from Wall Street for defrauded consumers.

In the News: It’s a Model of Government Efficiency, but DOGE Wants It Gone

The CFPB’s mission is widely popular among Americans, based on polling across the political spectrum. Many Republican lawmakers have long opposed the agency, however, accusing it of regulatory overreach. Recently, Musk and certain other tech leaders, including Marc Andreessen and Mark Zuckerberg, have become particularly critical of the watchdog, as the agency has turned its eye toward Silicon Valley.