Americans for Financial Reform supports the introduction of the Veterans and Consumers Fair Credit Act of 2021. This legislation would extend the 36 percent APR cap on payday and car-title loans in the Military Lending Act (MLA) to cover all borrowers.
Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu announced that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) plans to develop climate risk supervisory expectations for large banks and issue guidance for comment by the end of the year. Over the past year, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and partners have urged the OCC and other banking regulators to take this important initial step immediately. We applaud Acting Comptroller Hsu for his leadership on this issue and we urge the other regulators to follow suit and issue guidance by the end of the year.
The Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund views the current state of the stablecoin market as a danger to consumers and to financial stability, and we are disappointed that the President’s Working Group (PWG) has focused on Congressional action as the central path for responding to these challenges.
The U.S. Treasury Department released its climate finance report on Thursday evening following a meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) where members voted to approve the report. Though strong in some areas like climate risk disclosure and scenario analysis, the report largely highlights agency actions that are already underway, and it fails to lay out a comprehensive roadmap with specific recommendations and timelines for regulators to consider beyond the assessment and disclosure of climate risk, Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) and Public Citizen said.
Following reports that Facebook is scaling up its cryptocurrency efforts with the launch of a pilot of its cryptocurrency wallet “Novi”, Demand Progress Education Fund and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund released the following joint statement.
The Stop Wall Street Looting Act would rewrite the rules that shape the private equity industry, which now has about $7.1 trillion in assets and wealth under its control, so that regulation and market incentives promote productive, sustainable investment, not the wealth extraction that now is all too common.
Public Citizen, Sierra Club, 350.org, Americans for Financial Reform, Evergreen Action, and Action Center on Race and the Economy today delivered more than 40,000 petition signatures to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen demanding that an upcoming report highlight the gravity of climate threats to our financial system and identify concrete steps that financial regulators should take to address them.
Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) released detailed policy recommendations today to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for its forthcoming report on climate-related financial risk.
Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF) applauds the Labor Department for issuing this proposal to better allow and encourage retirement plans and pensions to consider sustainability factors like workers’ rights, racial justice, corporate governance, and climate change when investing.
Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) applauds the Department of Education’s recent announcement that it will take steps needed to overhaul the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.