Category Archives: Financial Reform News

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AFR Statement: Appropriations Bill Is Backdoor Financial Deregulation

“In addition to [a] dangerous and highly partisan rollback of financial regulations, the legislation takes aim at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that is succeeding at its job of making the consumer finance markets safer and fairer. The appropriations bill contains policy riders that would dramatically weaken the CFPB by making it the only bank regulator which does not have independent funding, and by replacing the CFPB’s single director with a five-member commission – a known recipe for gridlock.”

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Letter to Regulators: AFR Calls on Department of Labor to Protect Retirement Investors

“This is a huge problem – one that, over time, can easily add up to a difference of tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement savings. Under the current rules, some of the financial professionals offering retirement investment advice are legally bound to look out for the best interests of their clients; but other professionals, while perceived as having such a duty and clearly benefiting from the perception, are free to put their own interests first, even if that means saddling their clients with needlessly high fees or inappropriate risks.”

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Press Release: More than 230,000 Petition Signers Support a Strong Fiduciary-duty Rule for Retirement Investment Advisers

With the rulemaking process moving into its final stages, the Department of Labor received a delivery today of petitions in which more than 230,000 signers call for action to protect Americans against self-serving retirement advice. The signatures were gathered by CREDO Action, MoveOn.org, Americans for Financial Reform, and Public Citizen. Ethel Sprouse, the former Mayor of Cedar Bluff, Alabama, accompanied the petition deliverers and told her story at the event.

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AFR Statement: AFR Supports the Consumer Reporting in Bankruptcy Act of 2015

The Consumer Reporting in Bankruptcy Act of 2015 will keep borrowers from continuing to be haunted and harmed by debts discharged in bankruptcy. Millions of consumers who are in bankruptcy find themselves continuing to deal with debts that remain on their credit reports even though they have been discharged. Passage of this bill would be a big help to consumers who too often have their credit scores negatively impacted by debts erroneously remaining on their reports, or pay debts they do not owe.

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AFR Report: Where They Stand on Financial Reform

  In a new report, Americans for Financial Reform looks at what the 113th Congress did in 2013-2014 to advance or impede the cause of stronger regulation of the financial industry. AFR’s report, Where They Stand on Financial Reform (view or download PDF here), tracks a

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AFR in the News: Banks Would Get Boost for Overseas Swaps in House CFTC Bill (Huffington Post)

“The legislation would make it easier for Wall Street to escape tough rules designed to make trading more competitive and transparent, Marcus Stanley, policy director for Americans for Financial Reform, said in an interview. ‘It could undo various parts of the Dodd-Frank Act by permitting American banks to transact in locations where swaps are not as well-regulated,’ Stanley said.”