WASHINGTON, D.C. – The proposed Capital One purchase of Discover Financial Services threatens to raise credit card prices for consumers and further constrain credit access for communities around the country. Banking regulators and antitrust authorities must closely scrutinize this megamerger for the anticompetitive and anticonsumer impacts that would certainly justify blocking this takeover.
Washington, D.C. – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) expansions to the information collected by private funds over Form PF and Form CPO will provide both the agencies and the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) with greater visibility and early warning signs into portions of the $21 trillion private fund industry.
Washington, D.C. – Private Equity Climate Risks is launching the Private Equity Energy Tracker, the first-of-its-kind, searchable portal that provides a catalog of the energy holdings of eight of the top North American private equity firms: KKR, The Carlyle Group (NGP), Brookfield (Oaktree Capital), The Blackstone Group, TPG Capital, Warburg Pincus, Apollo Global Management, and Ares Management. Collectively, they hold around $4.3 trillion in assets under management (AUM).
Washington, D.C. – Eighty-two Democratic members of the House of Representatives signed a letter sent to President Biden today urging him to swiftly nominate two new public-service-minded members to the USPS Board of Governors. Thirty-six public interest groups, including Americans for Financial Reform, Public Citizen, Main Street Alliance, Revolving Door Project, Social Security Works, and Voter Action Project, endorsed the letter.
Washington, D.C. – The sudden crisis in the Steward hospital system in Massachusetts is a cautionary – and outrageous – tale of how Wall Street’s predatory practices in health care can harm or destroy health institutions in the long term.
Washington, D.C. – The minor changes proposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to the bank merger review process fail to grapple with the harms of consolidation and are no substitute for a thorough rethinking of merger guidelines that have remained unchanged for the last three decades.
Washington, D.C. – Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund is urging the Supreme Court to take up a case, Kirschner v. JP Morgan, that could change the way regulators treat the syndicated loans, and potentially improve investor protections in this $3 trillion market.
“The math isn’t mathing when it comes to property losses driven by climate change,” Caroline Nagy, senior policy counsel with the progressive group Americans for Financial Reform, said in an interview. “There’s a very good argument to be made that damage caused by climate change is an area where we need the government to take a role.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new protections for big bank customers against abusive overdraft charges is a critical initiative in reforming a practice that has drained billions of dollars in junk fees from consumers.
“The CFPB has done its homework here,” said Carter Dougherty, a spokesman for the left-leaning Americans for Financial Reform. “Some banks have gotten rid of overdrafts entirely and the world is still spinning on its axis. If bankers can’t run a business without relying on gotcha fees, they should find a new line of work.”