Statements and Press Releases Archives - Page 48 of 82

AFR Statement: Why We Support the Baldwin-Merkley Hedge Fund Bill

“Again and again, activist hedge funds have used sneak attacks to accumulate large stakes in public companies and then cashed out quickly at the expense of workers, communities, and the long-term viability of the company itself. The Brokaw Act is a sensible and badly needed response to this problem. With the introduction of their bill, Senators Baldwin and Merkley have struck an important blow against the immediate-profits-at-all-costs mentality that has become such a huge obstacle to long-term investment in our country.”

Press Release: Show of Support for CFPB at House Hearing

In the audience at the House Financial Services Committee’s semi-annual CFPB review hearing this morning, you’ll see a delegation of community leaders and consumer advocates from around the country wearing lime-green t-shirts and signs that say, “The CFPB Has Our Back.”

AFR Statement on the President’s Meeting with Financial Regulators Today

“Nearly six years after Dodd Frank’s enactment, key oversight agencies (including the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission) have still not completed crucial rules mandated by the law. These include measures deeply related to the causes of the financial crisis…”

AFR Statement: CFTC Should Discount Skewed Panel’s Report on Energy Market Speculation

“Today the CFTC’s Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee (EEMAC) issued an end-of-year report highly critical of mandated position limits in the energy markets. The CFTC and the public should discount this badly slanted report, and the CFTC should re-examine advisory committee membership to ensure that the public interest is properly represented.”

AFR Statement: Student Aid Enforcement Unit, Department of Education Must Grant Swift Relief to Defrauded Corinthian Students

“It is good that the Department of Education recognizes the depth of the problems of fraud at too many for-profit institutions of higher education, as evidenced by the formation of the Student Aid Enforcement Unit. But hundreds of thousands of borrowers from the now-bankrupt Corinthian Colleges, Inc. remain on the hook for federal student loans, and continue to accrue interest. This is despite the fact that the illegal actions identified in Department enforcement actions against certain Corinthian schools were endemic throughout the entire chain.”

AFR Statement: SEC Should Call Big Banks to Account for Unfair Dealings with Municipalities

“It is disappointing that the Commission has not already taken such steps. But a call from the people and the State of Illinois could and should spur the SEC to action to recover for the public big-bank gains that resulted from violations of their obligations to do business in a fair and transparent way with these public-sector clients. “

AFR Statement: The State of Financial Reform

In his final State of the Union address, President Obama reminded the nation that “food stamp recipients didn’t cause the financial crisis; Wall Street recklessness did.” While he did not linger on the subject, the totality of his remarks made a strong case for measures to make the financial system safer and fairer. We agree about the need for such measures, and we laud the progress that has already been made. But, as we enter the final year of this administration, there is more that needs to be done.

Joint Press Release: Newly Unsealed Documents Expose Ugly Details Of Scott Tucker’s Payday Lending Scheme

“Public Justice, working as counsel to Americans for Financial Reform, announced today that it has won a motion to unseal court documents showing how AMG Services, Inc., the payday lending business owned by magnate Scott Tucker, deceived borrowers about the total amount their loans would cost. The carefully orchestrated scheme netted Tucker and his associates at least $1.32 billion out of the pockets of hard-pressed borrowers.”

AFR Statement: Wall Street Loses – The Rest of Us Win

“The omnibus government spending bill made public this morning did not include the dangerous financial deregulatory riders that Wall Street and its allies had been promoting. Financial industry lobbyists and their friends in Congress pushed hard to use this ‘must pass’ legislation to achieve a number of unrelated, unpopular, and destructive policy goals… They failed. The defeat of these proposals is a credit to the determined opposition of key leaders in the House, the Senate, and the Administration, and to the effective organizing and advocacy of groups around the country.”

AFR Statement: The Cooked-Up Controversy Over the CFPB’s Data Collection

“Repeat a preposterous story often enough, and maybe someday you’ll get a few people to believe it. That could be the theory behind the campaign to depict the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) as an NSA-style spy agency and a threat to liberty.”