Financial Reform News Archives - Page 23 of 125 - Americans for Financial Reform

Letter to Congress: AFR Joins 14 Organizations in Opposition to HR 3192, Legislation Harmful to Homeowners

“We are writing to urge you to oppose H.R. 3192, which insulates lenders from accountability when they make misleading disclosures to homeowners. The bill, which suspends liability to individuals and government for the first four months after the new mortgage disclosure rules take effect, undermines compliance with the new rules by letting lenders off the hook even where homeowners have been harmed. “

AFR Statement: CFPB’s Defenders Hold the Line in Financial Services Committee

“Industry forces made a big effort to win more Democratic votes. But in the end, they fell short: the Financial Services Committee approved HR 1266, but in a largely partisan vote that dimmed its prospects for becoming law. With their hard push, however, the bill’s backers made it very clear just who is pushing for a commission instead of a single director, and why.”

AFR Testimony: Expansion of ERISA Fiduciary Duty Protection is “Long Overdue”

“Over the forty years since the existing DOL rule was written, retirement markets have transformed and workers have become overwhelmingly reliant on self-directed savings. Due to the loopholes in the current rule, brokers providing advice on such self-directed savings can easily evade the fiduciary protections that Congress intended to provide to workers saving for their retirement through employment-based plans.”

AFR in the News: “Too Big to Fail” Is Still a Problem – Here’s How D.C. Wants to End It (National Journal)

“‘Fixing much of this could have been done 10 years ago by higher capital requirements, which we failed to do, but we need to move more in that direction,” [Sherrod] Brown, now the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said at a press conference this month with Americans for Financial Reform.'”

Press Release: More than 13,500 People Tell the CFPB: Happy Birthday and Keep up the Good Fight

CFPB Director Richard Cordray accepted delivery yesterday of a set of birthday-card-style petitions in which more than 13,500 Americans expressed their support and gratitude for the Bureau’s efforts “to safeguard American consumers, families and communities against the deceptive and abusive practices of big banks, cred card companies, and unscrupulous lenders.” The signatures were gathered by Americans for Financial Reform, National People’s Action, and the Center for Popular Democracy.

Letter to Congress: AFR, Consumer Groups Oppose Legislation Being Considered by House Financial Services Committee

“We are writing to express our concerns about, and in most cases our opposition to, a number of the bills being marked up in the House Financial Services Committee today. The bills we have highlighted below include harmful deregulatory measures that would reduce protections for consumers as well as the financial system as a whole. “

AFR in the News: Dodd-Frank is Not Perfect but a Boon for Consumers and Economy (Philadelphia Inquirer & other papers)

“The financial system that pushed the U.S. economy to the edge of collapse in 2008 was a doubly rigged game. It was set up to inflate the profits of banks and insiders twice over—first through products designed to bilk consumers and investors, and second through massive speculation, with taxpayers ultimately paying for the bets that went bad. It was a dishonest system and a dangerous one, and while Dodd-Frank was not a complete fix for either problem, it has made progress on both.”

Letter to Congress: AFR, 19 Organizations: CFPB, Dodd-Frank are Constitutionally Sound

“On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform, the leading public interest coalition that supported enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) and its members, including the undersigned, we write both to explain the importance of the Act and to point out that, while numerous opponents of financial reform have challenged the act’s constitutionality, none have prevailed, in any court. “

Elizabeth Warren Video: The Story of Dodd-Frank

AFR Conference: Looking Back, and Ahead, on the Fifth Anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act

Senators Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren joined regulators and experts for a discussion of the progress made, and the work yet to be done, in building a financial system that is safer and fairer and does a better job of serving the real economy and the country as a whole.