Statements and Press Releases Archives - Americans for Financial Reform

News Release
NYC Comptroller Brad Lander Announces Asset Manager Accountability Policy on Earth Day

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander announced standards by which he will evaluate the net zero plans of the asset managers that oversee the city’s pension assets. He will recommend the boards of trustees of the city’s pensions pursue other asset management options through a bidding process should some of their current asset managers fail to meet those standards.

News Release
Broad Coalition Applauds District Court Shutdown of CFPB Staff Firings

Today, Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the US District Court for the District of Columbia halted the Trump Administration’s attempted firings of 1,500 Consumer Finance Protection Bureau employees.

News Release
AFR Statement on Approval of Capital One-Discover Merger

The Trump administration’s approval of the biggest, most complex bank merger in decades will raise credit card costs for working families, sap the earnings of small businesses, and undermine community investment.

A book titled "Consumer Protection" on a desk with a gavel resting on top

News Release
AFR Statement on Escalating Attacks on the CFPB and the Communities It Protects

The most recent plans for the CFPB from the Trump Administration—additional dramatic staff cuts, a narrowing of the agency’s focus, and a reduction in supervision and enforcement—all send the same dangerous message: that bad actors in finance have permission to rip people off with impunity.

News Release
AFR Statement on Unlawful Firings of Two NCUA Board Members

President Trump illegally fired two Board members at the National Credit Union Administration yesterday, in yet another effort to incapacitate the agencies responsible for protecting everyday consumers and safeguarding the financial system.

News Release
Tax Day Spotlight: Tax Code Fuels Health Inequity, Medical Debt, and Encourages Medicaid Cuts

This Tax Day, Community Catalyst and advocates across the country are sounding the alarm on a tax system that prioritizes profit over people—and demanding change. While teachers, EMTs, and nurses pay their fair share, corporations and the wealthiest people in America are handed tax breaks.

News Release
New Guide Aims to Protect Communities Reeling from Climate Disasters

As communities across the country face increasingly severe and frequent climate disasters, a new guide released today by the Equitable & Just Insurance Initiative offers a slate of actions local and state governments can take to protect renters, homeowners, communities, and insurance policyholders.

News Release
Senate Approves Unfit Leader for the Securities and Exchange Commission

The Senate approved the nomination of Paul Atkins to serve as Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on a partisan vote putting a deeply flawed nominee in office at a time of great market turmoil that could threaten investors, retirees and pensions, equity markets, and the broader economy.

Blog
The Project 2025 Capital Formation Trojan Horse Attack on Mom and Pop Investors

At a time when far-right forces are literally dismantling the government, including stripping away most agencies’ regulatory and oversight capacity, further deregulation of the financial system would be a dangerous mistake that would help advance the far-right’s democracy-grab. The House and Senate Republicans are advancing so-called capital formation legislation that purports to be about helping companies raise capital but are really about undermining investor protections and exposing small investors—read people’s retirement and life savings—to the riskiest parts of the financial system.

News Release
House Committee Passes Crypto Bill Devoid of Fraud and Corruption Limits

The House Financial Services Committee today approved a massive giveaway to the cryptocurrency industry with a bill on stablecoins that lacks basic fraud and consumer safeguards and does nothing to address the corrupt crypto business deals that the Trump family is now pursuing. It also approved a bill to gut small business and farm lending transparency requirements under Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act.