Statements and Press Releases Archives - Page 57 of 86

AFR Statement: CFPB Payday Proposal Gets Two Crucial Things Right While Leaving Dangerous Exceptions

“First, for a loan to be fair, the borrower must have the ability to repay… Second, the Bureau has recognized that this crucial principle… must apply to a sufficiently broad range of small-dollar loans, and not just to a narrowly defined set of payday or car- title loans. Otherwise, abusive lenders will do what they have done in many of the states that have tried to crack down on such abuses: find ways to evade the rules without giving up their basic debt-trap approach.”

AFR Statement: Growing Congressional Support for a Wall Street Transaction Tax

“The push for a Wall Street transaction tax continues to gain traction in Washington. In a fresh show of support , a majority of the Democratic members of the House of Representatives voted today for the Congressional Progressive Caucus’s “People’s Budget,” which includes a transaction tax. The 96 votes cast in favor of the CPC budget are 8 more votes than a similar proposal received last year.”

AFR Statement: House Budget Proposal Is a Gift to Wall Street

“Republicans in the House of Representatives have come out with a budget proposal that, while vague on many points, is all too specific in its attack on Wall Street regulation, the Dodd-Frank Act, and the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The proposal would tie financial (and other) regulators up in procedural knots… In addition, it would eliminate a key mechanism for the safe unwinding of a big bank in the event of failure; undermine the ability of regulators to detect and curb systemically dangerous practices; and end the independent funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”

AFR Statement: AFR Denounces Senate Budget Committee Move to Strip CFPB of its Independent Funding

“There should be no mistaking the intent or inevitable effect if this change were actually made: it would cripple the first and only financial regulator with a mandate to put consumers’ interests first… The result would be a green light for more of the tricks and traps that characterized the banking and lending world for too long, and that the CFPB is working to clean up.”

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.