Category Archives: Letters and Statements

Letter to Regulators: The Fed must recognize its own regulatory failures and take action in the wake of Archegos

Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund wrote the Fed to express concerns over the blow-up of the Archegos family fund. This incident reveals both the dangers of excessive leverage at private funds, and the failure of banking regulators, including the Federal Reserve, to properly regulate bank interactions with such funds. To address these issues, the Federal Reserve must investigate its own regulatory failures in this case and publicly disclose the lessons learned from this investigation, and must also work with the Financial Stability Oversight Council to address the risks of excessive leverage at private funds.

In The News: A reckoning for SPACs: will regulators deflate the boom? (Financial Times)

In February, a letter sent to the House Financial Services Committee by the progressive non-profit Americans for Financial Reform called on Congress to expand the blank-cheque company definition and amend securities law to exclude SPAC mergers from liability protections. “As long as there’s money to be made in every part of the SPAC issuance process, I don’t expect to see changes unless you start to see some more scrutiny,” says Andrew Park, senior policy analyst at AFR. 

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News Release: Dumping Bad-Actor Big Banks? New Report Shows How

A new report shows how American individuals and municipalities can move money away from bad-actor big banks, which are increasingly losing trust and support among Americans because of policies that undermine communities, damage the environment, and harm poor folks and people of color. While the idea of breaking up with big banks has become increasingly popular, the practicalities of doing so can seem prohibitive.

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photo of Wall Street sign in NYC | Photo by Chris Li on Unsplash

Report: Breaking Up With Bad Banks

Despite wanting to move their money, many consumers have found that it can be quite difficult to switch. Banks have deliberately made the process of switching more complicated than it needs to be. Cities and municipalities have faced even greater difficulties in moving their money to community banks and credit unions. There are changes that can be made that would give consumers a real choice by making it easier for them to switch banks and would make it easier for municipalities to move their money.

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Joint Letter: Calling on SBA to release Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness data

AFR joined a letter to the Small Business Administration calling for the release of data pertaining to Paycheck Protection Program recipients’ loan forgiveness requests, which represents $194.5 billion of taxpayer money, most of which has already been forgiven. The letter urges the SBA to release the number of jobs borrowers supported with PPP funds, information on any pay reductions experienced by workers employed by borrowers, whether the borrower applied for or received a second draw PPP loan, among other important data points.

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Report: Wall Street Money in Washington, 2019-2020

In the 2019-20 election cycle, Wall Street banks and financial services interests reported spending $2.9 billion to influence decision-making in Washington. That total – officially reported expenditures on campaign contributions and lobbying – works out to $4 million a day. This level is a full 50 percent above the previous record of $2 billion in the previous presidential cycle, reflecting the industry’s enduring effort to influence policy no matter which party controls Congress and the executive branch.

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