Statements and Press Releases Archives - Page 53 of 84

Joint Statement: AFR and 23 Public-Interest Groups Praise CFPB for Going Public With Firsthand Complaint Information

“For the first time, consumers will be able to learn the details behind complaints against a company filed with the CFPB. In addition to searching by product, company, and complaint category, consumers will be able to discover what the real problem was that motivated someone to complain… Researchers and companies will be able to better analyze marketplace practices that are posing the most difficult problems.”

Online Petition: More than a Quarter of a Million Americans Tell Congress to Defend the CFPB and Oppose Efforts to Weaken the Bureau or its Rules

In petitions delivered today to all 535 members of the new Congress, more than 274,000 Americans sound the alarm against continued efforts to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 to bring basic standards of transparency and fairness to the banking and lending markets.

AFR Statement: We Welcome the President’s Call for a “Student Aid Bill of Rights”

“AFR urges swift adoption of these changes, along with further measures to deal with the burden of student loan debt. The complaint system is one of a number of places we think steps can and should be taken ahead of the deadlines laid out by the Administration. While the Department is establishing a full system for dealing with complaints, which should be comprehensive, it should partner with the CFPB so that borrowers can immediately use that process to submit complaints about federal student loans (as they already can about private loans).”

AFR Statement: CFPB Makes a Compelling Case for Banning Forced Arbitration

“In its latest study of forced arbitration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) confirms what consumers and consumer advocates have long said about this practice: it is a private dispute system stacked against individuals seeking justice. AFR applauds the release of the CFPB’s report, and urges the Bureau to move forward swiftly with rulemaking to prohibit forced arbitration in consumer financial contracts.”

Press Release: Joint Letter Warns Congress Against Measures to Weaken CFPB

In a joint letter to Congress, Americans for Financial Reform and 340 organizations–state, local and national consumer groups, civil rights groups, faith-based groups, housing groups, labor unions and others–warn against efforts to “dismantle, weaken, or change the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”

AFR Statement: AFR Welcomes Administration’s Call for a Strong Fiduciary-Duty Requirement

President Obama came down squarely on the side of working families when he announced his support for reforms to establish a higher standard for investment advice. Developed and championed by the Department of Labor (DOL), these reforms will update a set of 40-year old rules governing those who give advice affecting the investment of money in employee retirement plans.

Press Release: Petitions Urge Congress and Obama Administration to Back a Strong Fiduciary-Duty Rule for Retirement-Planning Advisers

In recent years, it has become more and more difficult for most people to save for retirement. At the same time, a great many hardworking Americans have missed out on tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in potential retirement savings by following the advice of financial professionals who, because of outdated rules, are allowed to put their own interests ahead of the interests of those they advise…

Joint Statement: Nearly 60,000 Consumers Tell the FCC: Don’t Allow Robocalls to My Cell Phone

Today, more than 58,000 consumers across the nation sent a united message to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC): Do not allow robocalls to cell phones without our consent. The message came in the form of a petition from a coalition of national consumer groups, including the National Consumer Law Center, National Association of Consumer Advocates, Americans for Financial Reform, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, National Consumers League, Public Citizen, and U.S. PIRG.

AFR Statement: HR 50 Is a Gift to Wall Street

This legislation is the latest effort to cripple regulators’ ability to protect the public interest by loading them down with new paperwork requirements and enabling even more industry lawsuits. HR 50 would impose dozens of new analysis burdens on the financial regulators who oversee Wall Street, and then change the law to ensure the ability of big banks to sue to stop a regulation based on even a single claimed analytical failure.

AFR Statement: State of the Union Bank-Tax Proposal Is a Welcome Step

“Americans for Financial Reform welcomes the President’s proposed tax on the liabilities of large banks. Since the tax would fall specifically on debt liabilities, it would create incentives against excessive leverage in the financial sector, while raising revenue as well… We also see the President’s bank tax proposal as contributing to a broad and emerging consensus on the appropriateness of taxing the financial sector commensurately with its profits.”