Washington, D.C. – The Supreme Court’s decision to take up a case in which the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals attacked the funding mechanism of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recognizes that the lower court has produced a decision threatening consumers, honest businesses, and the financial system itself.
A new report providing a snapshot of how every member of Congress voted on consumer protections, climate financial regulation, Wall Street, and financial industry legislative measures during the 117th Congress.
Washington, D.C. – The announcement that Chevron will spend $75 billion on stock buybacks underscores the urgency of reinforcing a measure Congress created last year to penalize companies that engage in a financial practice that amplifies rampant wealth inequality, and in this case boosts the bottom line of a climate-harming industry.
The nation’s big-bank regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, should help broaden and extend a crackdown on financial institutions that repeatedly violate the law – notably Wells Fargo – with all the tools at its disposal. Comptroller Michael Hsu is speaking on the problem of “too big to manage” today. The speech comes about a month after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Wells to pay $3.7 billion over widespread mismanagement of auto loans, mortgages, and deposit accounts, and promised to work with other federal regulators to find durable solutions to its constant violations of the law.
The explosion of low-quality lending has brought debt loads in corporate America to record highs, a development that is likely to bring, in the coming years, a wave of defaults, slower growth, future job losses, and potential instability stemming from the utter opacity of this business. Despite the exponential growth in subprime corporate debt, our laws and regulations have not kept up, leaving policymakers and regulators in the dark as to the exact size of this market and where various risks may exist that could affect other financial institutions, companies, and their workers.
Washington, D.C. — The Federal Reserve and other banking regulators made the right call Tuesday by issuing a warning regarding the risks that crypto-assets pose to banking organizations. There is widespread volatility, fraud risk, legal uncertainties, unfair and deceptive practices, run and contagion risks, high levels of concentration and interconnections between firms, and poor risk management and governance found throughout the industry – all of which spells danger for investors and consumers alike.
For over a decade, AFR has supported the work of the CFPB, which has brought significant reforms and millions of dollars for consumers across the country. We also mobilized against the agency’s lousy leadership under the previous administration. Now, we are defending the CFPB after a recent right-wing court attacked its funding mechanism.
Today, the Senate will hold a hearing on the proposed acquisition of grocery chain Albertsons by Kroger, the nation’s largest standalone grocery retailer. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), both skeptics of the merger, will preside over the hearing.
The SEC’s regulatory agenda is under attack, and Chair Gary Gensler is appearing before the Senate Banking Committee tomorrow. This memo for the media addresses the SEC’s work across eight different areas.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Americans for Financial Reform and two leading financial regulatory experts, sent a detailed letter to the US Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, highlighting major shortcomings in a new bill, the Digital Commodities Consumer Protection Act of 2022 (S. 4760/H.R. 8730).