Before the vote, more than 200 organizations, led by Americans for Financial Reform, sent a letter to senators warning that the CFPB’s ability to regulate and protect consumers would be severely restricted without a director.
‘Some senators are taking the extreme step of demanding that the law be reopened and refusing to allow him an up or down vote,’ said Americans for Financial Reform Director Lisa Donner. ‘If they continue, we will urge the president to make a recess appointment.’
The Consumer Federation of America, Americans for Financial Reform, and the AFL-CIO, hosted a conference call with reporters and bloggers on Tuesday, December 6th to discuss threats to a key Dodd-Frank provision designed to protect municipalities, pensions and other vulnerable swaps market participants from predatory industry practices of the kind that just last month drove Jefferson County, Alabama to declare the nation’s largest ever municipal bankruptcy.
An overwhelming majority of Americans—Republican, Democratic, and Independent—favor strong, sensible oversight of the financial services industry, including a strong and independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the poll finds.
Click here to view this week’s highlights and lowlights in Wall Street Reform – November 25, 2011 – December 2, 2011.
The Volcker Rule and Barclays’ UK Bear Hug – Nick Dunbar
“On Nov. 3rd, I attended the inaugural BBC Today Business Lecture, given by Bob Diamond, the chief executive of Barclays. The man who told the UK Treasury Select Committee that it was time to stop apologising for the financial crisis had been given an image makeover. …The more I thought about it, aside from the change in tone, there was not a great deal of difference between the unrepentant Diamond addressing the Treasury Committee and the contrite version lecturing the BBC. …The answer came to me last week…I was invited by the legislative counsel for Sen. Jeff Merkley, one of the architects of the original Volcker Rule bill, and… Americans for Financial Reform.”
M.M. Push Back: Volcker Edition – Ben White (Politico’s Morning Money)
“ Pro-reform groups were not, ahem, too happy about the anonymous comments from a senior banker in M.M. suggesting the Volcker Rule as drafted goes beyond what the statute intended. … John Carey, Communications Director for Americans for Financial Reform emails: ‘Hard to believe that bankers have a better idea of what Congress intended than Senators Merkley and Levin, who drafted the Volcker Rule. Wall Street lobbyists seem to think that the impact of the rule is limited to taking the word ‘proprietary’ off traders’ business cards. …’
Gov’t Shutdown Looms if ‘Mini-bus’ Isn’t Passed – Michelle Hirsch (The Fiscal Times)
“The Commodities Futures Trading Commission, for instance, is being asked to swallow a near one-third cut relative to what the Obama administration requested. …’The Dodd-Frank Act assigned massive new markets to CFTC oversight, leading to a 600 percent increase in the size of the CFTC’s supervisory responsibilities,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. ‘The funding level just advanced by the Conference Committee would barely allow the CFTC to expand its current oversight resources and would not permit the agency to implement its new responsibilities.’
Robocalls Instigate a Cellphone Fight – Randall Stross (NYT)
“… The American Bankers Association, the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals and other trade groups…are backing a bill in the House, H.R. 3035, that they say would clarify issues of consent surrounding automated calls. …The bill is opposed by the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the Consumer Federation of America, Americans for Financial Reform, Consumer Watchdog, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and other consumer advocates.
House Democrats ask for tougher Volcker rule – Dave Clarke (Reuters)
“A group of House Democrats are asking regulators to start over with a proposed ban on proprietary trading by banks, arguing the current proposal has too many loopholes. … At a November 9 event on the rule, however, Volcker’s top aide, Tony Dowd, said…‘[f]rom Mr. Volcker’s standpoint I think he is hanging his hat on the strong wording of the general prohibition on prop trading and the accountability for senior management and boards of directors to implement the policy,’ he said at an event hosted by Americans for Financial Reform, which supports the Volcker rule.”