“High overdraft fees make it harder for customers to be able to return back to a positive balance,” [said Christine Chen Zinner, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform.] “It contributes to involuntary account closures, even from customers being blocked out of the banking system altogether.”
While the crypto industry is hoping for a more friendly regulatory environment, Mark Hays, associate director for cryptocurrency and financial technology at watchdog group Americans for Financial Reform, warned that there are risks from this.
“Signs are mounting that the second Trump administration will try, like the first iteration, to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s mission and capacity to safeguard the rights and wallets of families throughout the United States,” Americans for Financial Reform said in a statement last week.
Americans for Financial Reform has launched a tracker tallying the late fees that have been collected since 5th Circuit Court of Appeals stopped the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s limit on credit card late fees from taking effect.
“If you mean to stick up for the little guy, and not stick it to the little guy, you don’t pick nominees from industry for agencies that should be protecting the public interest,” said Patrick Woodall, managing director for policy at Americans for Financial Reform.
“Almost all of the money that was spent in the elections came from a handful of wealthy donors from Silicon Valley,” said [Mark] Hays, [senior policy analyst] with American for Financial Reform. “They did not come from rank-and-file voters.”
It also has the support of labor and financial-policy groups, including the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers and National Nurses United. Lisa Donner, executive director of financial watchdog group Americans for Financial Reform, said the bill “takes important, much-needed steps to rein in Wall Street predatory practices and promote a more just and sustainable economy.”
Researchers at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, Global Energy Monitor and Private Equity Stakeholder Project assessed the holdings of 21 private equity firms, overseeing a combined $6tn in assets under management.
“Congress should pressure Postmaster General DeJoy and the USPS Board of Governors to reverse course, and instead of another mail slow down, reinstate the 2012 mail delivery service standards. They must not stray even one step away from USPS’s universal service obligation: to deliver the mail to everyone, in every ZIP code. USPS is a public service for all, and a lifeline for many, especially rural America.”
“The major driver of the growth in private credit has always been to get around regulations,” said Andrew Park, a senior policy analyst who focuses on private credit at Americans for Financial Reform, a Washington-based coalition of consumer and investor advocates. He pointed to previous ways risk has shifted to non-bank markets when new rules are imposed. “The answer is not loosening bank regulations but rather properly monitoring and containing the risks in the private-credit market,” he said.