“Community Banks Have Returned to Profitability: The percentage of community banks that are profitable has increased every year since 2009. Over the first half of 2015, almost 95% of the nation’s 5,880 community banks showed a profit. Return on Equity is Up: Overall profit (Return on Equity) at community banks has also increased every single year since 2009, reaching a healthy 8.9% so far in 2015.”
In recent months there have been calls to roll back regulation of large regional banks – institutions that hold over $50 billion in assets but are not among the eight U.S. mega-banks with a global footprint. In response to unfounded claims about the treatment of large regional banks under the Dodd-Frank Act, AFR has sent a briefing paper to congressional staff as well as the press.
Increased funding of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is a crucial piece of Wall Street reform. Here’s why.
View or download PDF. “Former employees of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) routinely help corporations try to influence SEC rulemaking, counter the agency’s investigations of suspected wrongdoing, soften the blow of SEC enforcement actions, block shareholder proposals, and win exemptions from federal law.”
A new report from the National Consumer Law Center analyzes the record of the government’s main mortgage modification initiative, and where we go from here.
The Dodd-Frank Act sought to protect municipalities and taxpayers against exploitative Wall Street financing deals. Now there are moves afoot to take back some of that promised protection.
This new report (from the AFR Activism Fund) tracks a stream of efforts by members of the current Congress to undermine one of the major acts of the last Congress: the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Since Dodd-Frank, Wall Street interests have lobbied to roll back
Four years after the Lehman collapse, a new AFR Briefing Paper surveys the damage .
The Volcker Rule and Market Liquidity The Volcker Rule will restrict banks’ ability to speculate in financial markets. Recently, critics of the rule have claimed that it will lead to declines in market liquidity that will have serious economic effects. A new industry-funded study from