NEW YORK TIMES March 15, 2012 Paving Path to Fraud on Wall St. By FLOYD NORRIS Nearly 20 years ago, Bankers Trust was riding high. The bank, based in New York, had become known as an expert in then-newfangled derivative securities, and the profits were
Fund Democracy sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Reid, and Minority Leader McConnell supporting the CROWDFUND Act.
The AFL-CIO released an executive statement slamming the JOBS Act as a Wall Street scam.
Mary Schapiro, Chairman of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) sent a letter to Senators Johnson and Shelby voicing her concerns over the JOBS Act.
Read the letter here.
AFR sent a letter to the SEC and CFTC urging regulators not to revise and loosen their original definition of ‘swap dealer’.
As the House takes up consideration of the JOBS Act, AFR and Consumer Federation of America wrote to members of the House in support of a handful of amendments that would make modest, incremental improvements in the legislation’s investor protections. The amendments cannot overcome the bill’s fundamental flaws, however. So, even if the amendments are adopted, CFA and AFR urged opposition to the overall bill.
As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to vote this week on the JOBS Act, consumer and investor groups from around the country wrote to urge the House not to adopt this anti-investor bill. The legislation would roll back important investor protections, undermine market transparency, and, as a result, drive up the cost of capital for the small companies it purports to benefit. The groups warned that it is more likely to harm the economy than to produce sustainable jobs growth.
Last week, Senate Majority Harry Reid announced that the Senate would be developing its own jobs bill based on reducing barriers to capital formation. CFA and AFR wrote to the Senate detailing their concerns about the various “capital formation” bills. They warned that the bills, as drafted, threaten to undermine regulations vital to protecting investors and the integrity of the capital markets, and they urged the Senate to revise the bill to restore important protections.
AFR in conjunction with several public interest groups, submitted a comment letter to the CFPB in response to their request for ideas on streamlining regulation.