Category Archives: In the News

In the News: Chase For Yield Has Fueled Private Equity With Significant Consequences For Americans (Forbes)

Lisa Donner, Executive Director of Americans for Financial Reform, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit consumer advocacy organization strongly supports the bill. “These powerful interests have rigged the rules to enable financial engineering that lets a tiny handful of people extract vast wealth at everyone else’s expense. It is time to change the laws to protect workers, communities, and pensions.”

In the News: Why is Trump’s Consumer Protection Agency Helping to Promote H&R Block’s Credit Card? (LA Times)

“Financial education isn’t going to stop a company from misapplying your mortgage payment or the wrongful repossession of a car,” observes Linda Jun, a senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform. “The financial crisis wasn’t about people suddenly forgetting how to save. That was a very minor aspect of what happened. There were these bad actors that preyed on people with deceptive fees and unfair practices and discrimination. The point of having a financial regulator that protects consumers is to bring these shady behaviors to an end.”

In the News: Elizabeth Warren’s Latest Wall Street Enemy: Private Equity (Vox)

“Private equity and hedge funds now wield enormous influence over the American economy, often with terrible consequences for workers and communities,” said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, one of the groups backing the bill, in a statement.

In the News: Eugene Scalia, Trump’s Pick to Head the Labor Department, Scares Worker Advocates to Death (CBS News)

“He was at the center of the industry effort to undo Dodd-Frank in the back rooms, and in terms of intimidating regulators and overturning important parts of it, he had a lot of success,” recalled Marcus Stanley, policy director of Americans for Financial Reform, a group that supports the law.
“Most of the rules that were costing industry a lot of money, he was the lead on trying to overturn them,” Stanley added.

In the News: Consumer Watchdog Wants to Work With Financial Companies to Encourage Saving

Consumer advocates criticized Ms. Kraninger’s invitation to financial companies. “Americans don’t need the main federal consumer protection agency partnering with the financial services industry to conduct studies,” said Linda Jun, senior policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform. “Americans need a strong CFPB that actually polices the industry from doing harm.”

In the News: Sen. Kennedy Seeks Momentum for MSRB Reform Bill

Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform, said that there is a widespread feeling that the MSRB is dominated by insiders to a degree that is “greater than is healthy for a self regulatory organization. Reforms are called for and I’m glad that Sen. Kennedy is stepping forward to do that.”

He said he sees bipartisan interest in the bill because people have interest in federal regulation in the municipal markets.

“We’ve seen blowups in the muni markets that have really affected cities and public entities across the country,” Stanley said, referencing Detroit and Puerto Rico.

In the News: Banks Push for Greater Relief on Foreign Bank Regs, Living Wills

“We are deeply concerned that the reductions in resolution planning requirements proposed here would have an adverse effect on the financial stability of the United States and possibly also on the safety and soundness of individual banks,” Americans for Financial Reform said in its letter.

In the News: Rep. Gottheimer Asks Regulators to Deregulate Banks He’s Invested In

“Loosening this regulation is a straight-up giveaway to the biggest Wall Street banks whose high-risk trading activities got us all into deep trouble in 2008,” Carter Dougherty, a spokesperson for Americans for Financial Reform, told Sludge. “This rule is critical for protecting bank affiliates that handle customer deposits.”

In the News: Watchdog Agency Must Pick a Side: Consumers or Scammers

Kathleen Kraninger, who has helmed CFPB for a scant four months, is unfortunately already making a name for herself as someone willing to let the bad guys off the hook. She is a protégé of Mick Mulvaney, who spent much of 2018 doing his best to lay waste to the CFPB’s work and structure as its acting director.

In the News: Rewrite of Bank Rules Advances Slowly, Frustrating Republicans

Trump-appointed regulators came into office saying they would pare back Wall Street’s postcrisis rulebook. More than two years into the administration’s tenure, most of the work remains unfinished, particularly for the biggest banks.