Category Archives: Statements and Press Releases

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News Release: CFPB Proposed Rule Requiring Language Access in Mortgage Servicing Will Help Homeowners Avoid Foreclosure

The Language Access Task Force of Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of fair housing and civil rights organizations, applauds Wednesday’s announcement from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposing rules that would ensure that borrowers with limited English proficiency (LEP) have a meaningful opportunity to seek assistance from their mortgage companies in times of distress, helping them stay in their homes. The proposal, which includes additional improvements to the general hardship assistance process, follows a petition from the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) urging the Bureau to include language access in the mortgage rule.

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News Release: New Report Shows Need for Buyback Restrictions in CHIPS Program

The report from the Institute for Policy Studies and the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, Maximizing the Benefits of the CHIPS Program, analyzes the distribution of the $39 billion in subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. It also examines the Biden administration’s initial steps to stop taxpayer money from going to share buybacks by granting preferential treatment to firms that agree to forgo all stock buybacks for five years.

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News Release: Supreme Court Expands Power of Right-Wing Judges to Hamper Regulation

Today’s Supreme Court ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo will give judges who are already concocting ridiculous reasons to strike down sensible protections, particularly in the notoriously pro-industry Fifth Circuit, greater leeway to strike down common-sense measures that protect people and communities. With Loper Bright in hand, judges are required to “exercise their independent judgment” when deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority, even if judges lack the necessary expertise, and even if that judge might prefer deference to agency decisions. 

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News Release: Supreme Court’s Ruling Against In-House Judicial Experts Threatens Enforcement

Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court curbing the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) ability to hear complicated cases in front of expert administrative judges will drive litigation into the federal courts where companies and lobbyists will be able to, as they increasingly do, shop around for a pro-industry judge. Today’s 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in SEC v. Jarkesy now gives businesses and wrongdoers more Constitutional rights than most consumers and employees in America and sets a bad precedent by chipping away at an agency’s ability to meaningfully hold corporations accountable.

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News Release: Removal of Medical Debt From Credit Reports Will Curb Abuses

The proposal by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to eliminate medical debt on credit reports would, if fully implemented, curb harmful practices such as distorted credit reports and abusive debt collection. As part of a broader initiative to improve the credit reporting system, the CFPB has proposed a new rule  that would stop credit reporting agencies from including medical debts and collection information on consumer credit reports, and prohibit the information from being  considered in underwriting decisions. The CFPB is now seeking public comment on this consumer protection proposal. 

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News Release: Fifth Circuit’s Wall Street-Friendly Ruling A Broad Threat to SEC Disclosure Rules

By staying the private fund disclosure rule written by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Fifth Circuit has given a victory to extraordinarily wealthy predatory financiers and opened the door to undermining the agency’s basic regulatory tools. Stopping the SEC’s private funds rule, which would increase transparency and accountability in the multi-trillion-dollar private funds market, is a terrible outcome in and of itself. But the impacts of this ruling go much further.

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News Release: Report Exposes How Real Estate Industry Maintains Housing Crisis

An intricate network of housing industry groups, often backed by corporate landlords, are actively blocking solutions that would alleviate the worst aspects of the current housing crisis and improve affordability, according to a new report. The report, from Capital Strategies for the Common Good, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, Bargaining for the Common Good, and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, sheds light on the money behind the political influence that has distorted the politics of housing in favor of wealthy interests. 

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News Release: Groups Call on Federal Agencies to Fight Private Equity Abuses in Health Care

Today over 90 organizations and individuals, representing patients, workers, communities; public interest advocates, and health care researchers, called on federal authorities, as part of their review of competition in health care, to take action to curb the abuses of private equity and safeguard the ability of doctors to deliver quality care to all patients and achieve equitable health outcomes.

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News Release: CFPB Database Expected to Help Curb Repeat Consumer Law Violations

A new centralized public database that catalogs violations of consumer protection laws by nonbank financial companies like payday lenders and debt collectors will aid state and federal enforcement efforts that often operate under the radar and are hard to track. The repeat misconduct registry will help remedy these regulatory blind spots and make it easier for regulatory agencies across the local, state, and federal levels to more easily spot bad actors. Members of the public, investors, creditors, business partners, and consumer advocacy organizations will also be able to more easily track financial firms subject to law enforcement orders due to repeat consumer violations.

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