Big Banks, Bigger Fees
PIRG’s new national survey shows bigger banks are more likely to charge for checking accounts. And fewer than half of all bank branches readily disclose fees, as the law requires.
Category Archives: Financial Reform News
AFR in the News: “Sideways Attack” on Dodd-Frank
St. Louis Post-Dispatch warns of a “truly awful piece of legislation” that could “sneak through the 112th Congress before it adjourns at year’s end,”
AFR in the News: Wall Street Firms Gambled on Mitt Romney and Lost
“Americans blame banks for the 2008 financial crisis, and view financial reform as a way to ensure that bad mortgages and repackaged debt don’t trigger another banking collapse.” That’s one of the clear the lessons of the 2012 elections – and a big problem for
AFR in the News: Financial Regulation Advocates Fighting Bill to Gut Regulatory Agencies
There’s move afoot in the lame-duck Congress to strip power and independence away from financial and other regulators, according to David Dayen of Firedoglake. He’s talking about S 3468, the Independent Regulatory Analysis Act. In the name of more cost-benefit analysis, it would (as AFR says
It’s Past Time to Implement the Volcker Rule, Senators Say
Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) have appealed to regulators to finish work on the Volcker Rule, which was meant to prevent banks from engaging in hedge-fund style trading. That basic principle has been “the law of the land for over two years,”
AFR in the News: FDIC Looks Into Big Banks Making Payday Loans
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is looking into payday loan-like products offered by U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and other lenders. The inquiry, according to the Portland (Ore.) Business Journal grew out of a February letter in which Americans for Financial Reform and more than 200
JPMorgan CEO Seeks to Rewrite History, AFR Tells Prosecutors
First the government wheedled his company into buying Bear Stearns; then the government sued his company over the misdeeds of Bear Stearns – that’s JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s hard-luck story. Don’t buy it – that’s the message of an AFR letter to the co-chairs of
Banks Want Legal Immunity for Unaffordable Loans. Tell Your Senator “No Way.”
Bank lobbyists plan to make the most of the lame-duck session of Congress that gets underway after the election. Almost before anyone has a chance to notice, they hope to pass an amendment undermining a crucial piece of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law —
Comment Letter on Stable Value Contracts
In a joint letter, AFR urges the SEC and CFTC not to exempt this common type of financial guarantee, which closely resembles a swap, from new derivatives rules.
AFR in the News: Consumer Groups Want Fair Lending Data Added to Mortgage Settlement
“Consumer groups are urging the monitor of the national mortgage settlement to add data on race, ethnicity and geography to determine whether the five largest servicers are offering relief to communities hit hardest by foreclosures,” The American Banker reports. In an Oct. 31 article, The