Financial Reform News Archives - Page 20 of 125 - Americans for Financial Reform

AFR Statement: Trump Turns Wall Street Regulation Over To Goldman Sachs

“The Administration apparently plans to turn over financial regulation to Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs, and make it easier for them and other big banks like Wells Fargo to steal from their customers and destabilize the economy. That betrays the promises Trump made to stand up the Wall Street, and It will have dire consequences if he’s successful. But the President does not have the authority to overturn laws or tell independent agencies what to do. And it’s flat-out illegal for the agencies to change rules by fiat without public input.”

CFPB Takes Action Against Two Debt Collection Law Firms for Intimidating Consumers with “Unfounded Threats of Potential Lawsuits”

On January 9, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) took action against two law firms, and their president, for lying when collecting medical debts from thousands of patients. The Oklahoma firms (Works & Lentz) attempt collection on approximately 700,000 debts totaling more than $500

AFR Fact Sheet: U.S. Economy Growing Faster Since Dodd-Frank Was Passed

“In recent years bank lobbyists have started to blame Wall Street regulatory reforms such as those
passed in the Doddd-Frank Act for slow economic growth. But the claim that better financial
oversight is responsible for a poor economic recovery has no foundation. It ignores not only the
devastating economic costs of the financial crisis itself, but key facts about the performance of
the U.S. economy and the profitability of the financial sector since Dodd-Frank passed.”

AFR in the News: Investment advice? Or sales pitch? New rule will make that clear

“Faced with the prospect that millions of Americans will run out of money in retirement and become a burden on government, the U.S. government took action last year to try to take some confusion out of the advice business. The Department of Labor is imposing what’s known as the ‘fiduciary rule’ to improve the chances that when an adviser gives money advice it’s actually untainted advice — best for you, and not a disguised sales pitch.”

AFR Press Release: Senator Warren Calls for a Mass Mobilization

“‘It’s time to send a message to big banks, payday loan lobbyists, and their Republican friends in Congress: the American people are watching,’ Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told a telephone audience of nearly 3,000 fired-up activists last night. ‘We’re going to fight back against any efforts to gut financial reform and to allow big banks and shady financial institutions to once again cheat consumers and put our economy at risk.’”

Letter to Congress: Oppose HR 5: Don’t End Wall Street Accountability

“There is overwhelming agreement that the lack of adequate regulation of the financial markets has cost the U.S. economy millions of jobs and many trillions of dollars in lost wealth. While Wall Street profits have recovered, many Americans are still struggling. Support for this legislation is support for eliminating the ability of regulators to prevent the next financial crisis.”

Letter to Congress: Don’t Deregulate Wall Street: Oppose HR 5, HR 78, and HR 238

“HR 5 (the Regulatory Accountability Act), HR 78 (the SEC Regulatory Accountability Act), and HR 238 (the Commodity End User Relief Act) — would severely damage the capacity of the Federal government to protect the public. This legislation would disastrously weaken oversight of major Wall Street institutions and financial markets. Proper oversight of big banks and financial markets is crucial to the economic well-being of workers, families, and communities …The 2008 financial crisis demonstrated beyond doubt that the well-being of America’s working families is dependent on strong and effective regulation of Wall Street financial markets. These three pieces of legislation would cripple the capacity to properly regulate such markets. We urge you to reject all three.”

Letter to Regulators: AFR Comments to CFTC on Improving Cross-Border Regulations of Derivatives

We strongly support using Consolidated Foreign Subsidiary (FCS) status as the basis for cross border enforcement rather than the more amorphous and subjective “guaranteed subsidiary” status. …We strongly disagree with the Commission’s proposal to exclude a wide range of transactions involving foreign branches and affiliates of U.S. swap dealers from external business conduct requirements.

Letter to Congress: Oppose HR 5143 — No More AIG-style Taxpayer Bailouts

On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), we are writing to oppose HR 5143, the “International Insurance Standards Act”. …Even without the amendment, HR 5143 places unreasonable and unworkable barriers on international negotiations important to the oversight of global insurance companies. We should not forget that an insurance company, AIG, was at the center of the 2008 financial crisis and received the largest taxpayer bailout in U.S. history. The $182 billion AIG bailout went to cover losses in investment banking type activities like the sale of credit default swaps and the securities lending business.

PRESS RELEASE: Joint Report Tells Real-Life Stories of Payday Loan Borrowers

“More than 400,000 comments asking for a rule on payday lending to be stronger and smarter have flooded in to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) since a draft proposal on the rule was unveiled in June… On a press call today, People’s Action Institute and Americans for Financial Reform released Caught in the Debt Trap, a heart wrenching report that tells the real story about what business as usual means to thousands of borrowers around the country “