Category Archives: In the News

In The News: Commentary: Crisis at Steward Health highlights private equity’s threat to healthcare (The Dorchester Reporter)

“Steward is a prime example of private equity’s business model of extracting short-term profits from entities before selling them off,” said Robert Seifert, senior fellow at Americans for Financial Reform. “In the case of health care, this can leave critical service providers worse off financially, with more money going to Wall Street and less toward long-term viability, hospital staffing, and patient care,” he added.

In The News: The Capital One-Discover deal raises thorny issues for Washington (American Banker)

“Today’s concentrated markets and behemoth banking organizations are the result of a thirty-year run of mergers and consolidation,” said Patrick Woodall, senior fellow at the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. “It is time for the banking regulators to stop rubber-stamping these transactions and stand up for consumers, communities, and a more stable financial system by blocking this takeover.”

In The News: ‘Could have predicted’: Steward downfall started with former AG (The Eagle Tribune)

“It’s very incompatible with health care, especially today with movements toward improving quality care in health care, increasing the coordination among different types of health care providers, being very focused on patients and patient needs,” said Bob Seifert, senior fellow with Americans for Financial Reform.

In The News: Private-Fund Lobbyists Get Set for High-Stakes SEC Court Fight (The Wall Street Journal)

“The private-funds industry is trying to use its money and resources and a friendly court in order to push back on rule-making. That’s very simply what’s going on here,” said Andrew Park, senior policy analyst with Americans for Financial Reform, which supports the new SEC rules.

In The News: Banks Fine-Tune Critiques of US Capital Plan to Sway Fed’s Michael Barr (Bloomberg)

Banks are spending “vast lobbying dollars to cloak themselves in the mantle of preserving access to credit,” [AFR] said. “But the truth that the banks avoid debating is that the overwhelming impact of higher bank capital is — by design — to restrict how risky and how big the more speculative aspects of their business, notably their trading and investment bank operations, can grow.”

In The News: New Credit Union Regulator Could Boost Exec Comp Push (Politico-Morning Money)

Americans for Financial Reform flags that it now means all the banking agencies have majorities to move ahead with an unfinished rule from the 2010 Dodd-Frank law to address executives’ incentive-based compensation. 

In The News: SEC Poised to Rework Stock Buyback Rule After Court Tosses It

“The SEC must stand behind the need to have basic transparency around stock buybacks,” Natalia Renta, senior policy counsel for corporate governance and power at the group, said in a statement.

In The News: AFREF and Take on Wall Street Launched ESG Advocacy and Education Website

ESG advocacy — Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Take On Wall Street are launching esgexplainer.org. They say it’s an attempt at “educating Americans about responsible investing” and “dispelling myths” about ESG.

In The News: How Banks Keep You Trapped (The American Prospect)

“Banks make it very hard for consumers to choose where they want to go if they’re not happy with services,” Elyse Hicks, a lawyer specializing in consumer policy at the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform, told The Lever and The American Prospect.

In The News: Yellen puts tougher policing of big financial firms back on the menu (Politico Pro)

“Many risks in the nonbank sector, from insurance to private equity to hedge funds to asset management, are becoming increasingly serious and in need of closer attention,” said Alexa Philo, senior banking and systemic risk analyst at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund.