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.
“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.”
If federal regulations and ethical standards for pension fund asset managers are to have “any meaning,” the Department of Labor must not give Credit Suisse a waiver, say AFR and the AFL-CIO in a joint statement.
A senior House Democrat, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), moved today to put the idea of a Wall Street transaction tax firmly on the table of the national policy debate. Rep. Van Hollen’s proposal – along with a swift statement of support from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) – is excellent news. AFR also strongly supports a second element of Van Hollen’s plan, which would sharply limit the tax deductability of corporate pay above $1 million.
A new report from Americans for Financial Reform finds that payday, car title and installment lenders have spent more than $13 million in campaign contributions and lobbying during the 2014 election cycle. The Online Lenders Alliance (OLA) and Community Financial Services Association (CFSA) led the way, with combined
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 18, 2014 Contact: Marcus Stanley marcus@ourfinancialsecurity.org 202-466-3672 AFR STATEMENT ON FEDERAL RESERVE DELAY OF VOLCKER RULE IMPLEMENTATION Today, the Federal Reserve announced that it would delay the effective implementation of a crucial part of the Volcker Rule for
“The section of Dodd-Frank that Congress is proposing to repeal was put in place to help prevent future bailouts of too big to fail banks. It cordons off the kinds of extraordinarily risky transactions that were at the heart of the financial crisis. Including this repeal in the budget is outrageous. It’s a giveaway to a tiny handful of the biggest Wall Street banks that puts the country’s financial and economic stability at risk.”
The U.S. should follow the lead of 10 European countries that are working out the details of a planned financial transaction tax, Public Citizen, Americans for Financial Reform and Stamp Out Poverty said today. “A transaction tax can raise significant revenue, cut down on dangerous high-frequency trading, and incentivize Wall Street to serve real economic needs,” AFR’s Jim Lardner said. “It is time for the U.S. to get on board.”
“On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), we write today to ask you to ensure appropriate regulatory oversight of derivatives transactions conducted through foreign subsidiaries of multinational Wall Street banks. In particular, we urge you to prevent the inappropriate classification of such derivatives as ‘non-guaranteed’ by the parent company, a classification which could exempt them from numerous critical derivatives regulations.”
Members of the Americans for Financial Reform coalition have argued that all homeowners should enjoy the same basic protections in their dealings with mortgage loan servicers. On November 20, the CFPB announced a set of proposed new rules that would bring that goal closer to