Category Archives: Blog Post

Blog: Sam Bankman Fried’s Sentencing is the Beginning, not the End of the Push for Crypto Accountability.

Today, Sam Bankman Fried – known as SBF, the founder of crypto firm FTX; the once exalted face of the crypto boom, and now the poster child for crypto scandals – was sentenced to serve 25 years in prison, after being found guilty of seven counts of fraud in a jury trial last year. The presiding judge found SBF, in addition to his other charges, had committed perjury and witness tampering during his trial as well.

Blog Post: Bluelining: How Climate Change is Driving an Insurance Crisis

Financial institutions like insurers, banks, and mortgage lenders, might raise prices or simply withdraw from major markets they deem environmentally risky. If that sounds trivial, consider that in the case of property insurance we’re already seeing these exclusions cover entire states.

A Wall Street street sign

Blog Post: Wall Street Throws the Kitchen Sink at Bank Capital Proposals

We should be clear about the motives of the banks’ strong opposition to the bank capital proposals released by federal regulators on July 27. The proposals will make it harder for bank executives to pursue riskier short-term financial gains and mobilize capital for their own benefit by paying excessive dividends and buying back shares. It is that simple, and any debate that does not include this fact is disingenuous.

Wall Street sign and a stoplight turned red - Photo by Roberto Júnior on Unsplash

Blog Post: Bank Lobbyist Nonsense About Capital Rules

The famously gruff Volcker had no patience for the arguments of the big-bank lobby against higher capital requirements and other regulations just after the 2008 financial crisis. An equally fitting word is “nonsense,” a favorite of Anat Admati, an economist at Stanford University, who has also applied it repeatedly since 2008.

Blog Post: AFR Applauds Rep. Pressley’s Efforts to Seek Accountability from Banks on their Racial Equity Pledges While Opponents Seek to Undermine Corporate Accountability Tools

As we approach the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Representative Ayanna Pressley sent a letter to the CEOs of the five largest banks in the U.S. — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and Citigroup — calling for a financial audit report detailing the status of the racial equity pledges they made in response to the summer 2020 uprisings following the murder of George Floyd.  The pledges ranged from $116 million committed by U.S. Bank to $30 billion committed by JPMorgan Chase.

Blog: A Breath of Fresh Air Amidst “ESG Month”

Amidst a whirlwind of anti-ESG activity at the House Financial Services Committee this month, labor leaders and allies reminded Capitol Hill that workers’ hard-earned money is at the center of this controversy. The off-the-record briefing for Hill staff — titled “Protecting Workers’ Retirement Security from Anti-ESG Attacks” — was planned by Americans for Financial Reform and sponsored by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.  

Blog: Awaiting the Supreme Court Hearing, the CFPB Continues to Defend Consumers

Despite being in a legal fight for its very existence, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continues to carry out its mission to promote fairness and transparency in our financial system and ensure that consumers are protected from predatory and deceptive practices. Its ability to perform under pressure is one more reason why we need a strong CFPB.