Fact Sheets Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Americans for Financial Reform

a student holding a black backpack standing in front of a brick wall -Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

Factsheet: Cancel Federal Student Loans to Provide Short and Long-Term Stimulus Amid Pandemic

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating economic impact, Americans for Financial Reform calls on Congress and the U.S. Department of Education to use their authority to cancel federal student loan debt. Cancelling debt would be a powerful and efficient way to immediately relieve pressure on distressed borrowers, boost consumer spending at a time when the economy is contracting, and reduce hardship on people who lose income because of the pandemic and efforts to fight its spread.

Fact Sheet: Private Equity-Owned Payday Lenders Profit Off Trapping People in Debt

Private equity has pushed into the high-priced consumer loan industry, offering payday and other consumer loans that profit off trapping borrowers in a cycle of debt. Private equity firms own over 5,000 storefront payday and online lenders that often make loans at 300% annual percentage

Fact Sheet: Wall Street Private Equity Landlords Snapping Up Apartment Buildings

Private equity owns over a million U.S. apartment units. Tenants pay a price when corporate landlords buy their buildings. In some cases, private equity buyers have pushed out lower-income tenants – through rent hikes, eviction threats, and more – to flip buildings into high-rent properties to sell for big profits.

Fact Sheet: Continuing Threat of Private Equity Investment in Single Family Rentals

Wall Street private equity funds are continuing to snap up homes to pad their expanding portfolio of rental properties. Institutional investors own nearly a quarter million single-family rental homes. Wall Street landlords often hike rents, avoid repairs, gouge tenants with fees, and are more likely to evict tenants.

AFR Fact Sheet: Wall Street and the Tax Bill

The briefing paper linked below uses Penn-Wharton and IRS data to show how the financial sector is a big winner from the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, with almost $250 billion in tax benefits over the next decade flowing to financial firms

Fact Sheet: Community Banks Are Alive And Well Under Dodd-Frank

“Community Banks Have Returned to Profitability: The percentage of community banks that are profitable has increased every year since 2009. For the year 2015, over 95% of the nation’s 5,880 community banks showed a profit. This is up from 78% in 2010, the year Dodd-Frank passed.”

Fact Sheet: Budget Riders Watchlist, Stop Wall Street Giveaways

“Here are some of the major goals that the financial industry and its political allies hope to achieve through language attached to end-of-year appropriations bills. This list does not provide an exhaustive list of potential financial regulatory riders to funding bills, but does highlight the potential riders that have recently been most prominent in the debate. “

Fact Sheet: Don’t Deregulate Large Regional Banks

“Large regional banks like Washington Mutual, Countrywide, and Wachovia all failed during the financial crisis and placed a major strain on the financial system when they did so. These banks also played an important role in the epidemic of irresponsible mortgage lending leading up to the crisis.”

Fact Sheet: Community Banks Are Alive And Well Under Dodd-Frank

“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.”

What the Senate’s Wall Street Reform Bill Means

Key Provisions Go a Long Way Preventing Another Financial Crisis Washington, DC – The historic Wall Street reform legislation passed by the Senate on May 20 will have an impact on Main Street as well as Wall Street. The big banks will make every effort