Letters and Statements Archives - Page 25 of 48 - Americans for Financial Reform

Joint Statement: Nation’s Top Student Loan Watchdog Post Remains Vacant 150 Days After CFPB Director Promised to “Quickly” Fill the Role

Tomorrow marks one hundred fifty days since Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Kathy Kraninger committed to quickly filling the nation’s top student loan watchdog position—a role that has been vacant for almost a year. As student debt nears $1.6 trillion and predatory practices plague the market, the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF) are releasing a roundup of failures by the current CFPB Director to stand up for student loan borrowers.

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Statement: Income-share agreements are just student debt with a fancy name

“Income-share agreements are nothing more than student debt with a fancy name,” said Alexis Goldstein, Senior Policy Analyst at Americans for Financial Reform. “Financial investors hungry for yield are using ISAs to put student debt in an elaborate and confusing package, while forcing students to waive key rights and seeking to withhold the already too limited consumer protections federal student loans provide.”

Letters to Congress: Statement to House Financial Services Committee on Facebook Libra Proposal

The AFR Education Fund sent a statement for the record to the House Financial Services Committee concerning Facebook’s proposal for the Libra digital token and payment system. The statement describes ways in which Facebook is attempting to create an unregulated financial product of potentially global scale and the dangers this would pose to the users of the token and the broader financial system.

News Release: Groups Sign Stock Buyback Petition

“The money that is being siphoned off from earnings to increase executive bonuses doesn’t just make wealthy insiders wealthier,” said Heather Slavkin Corzo, senior fellow at Americans for Financial Reform. “It is money that could have been used to invest in making the business more competitive and pay workers living wages.”

News Release: Groups Petition SEC to Abandon Rules Sanctioning Share Buybacks

The groups urged the agency to abandon old rules that govern stock buybacks in light of their rampant abuse by corporate America since their enactment in 1982. Last year, the massive tax cut passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump gave companies war chests of unprecedented size to boost share prices through stock buybacks.

Letter to Regulators: New Jersey Investor Protection Rule Would Fill Regulatory Void

Given the unfortunate demise of the Department of Labor (DOL) Fiduciary Rule and the glaring deficiencies in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) Regulation Best Interest, we greatly appreciate states such as New Jersey that are willing to step in to fill the regulatory void by providing the protections investors need and expect.

News Release: Consumer and Civil Rights Groups Send Letters to FDIC, OCC, and Fed Urging them to Prevent Bank Payday Loans

Today, Americans for Financial Reform joined a coalition of national consumer and civil rights groups in writing to top banking regulators on the importance of preventing banks from once again issuing payday loans that trap people in a cycle of debt.

Letter to Regulators: Letters to FDIC, OCC, and Fed Urging them to Prevent Bank Payday Loans

Even within our broad coalition, it is exceedingly rare for so many organizations to come together and to speak with one voice. The tremendous outpouring of opposition to high-cost, short-term loans that put people in a cycle of debt, whether issued by banks or nonbanks, illustrates the importance of this issue to people across the country.

Letter to Congress: Comment on HFSC Leveraged Lending Hearing

Today’s hearing addresses the financial stability and economic risks of the growth of leveraged lending to non-financial businesses. The rapid growth and poor underwriting of high-risk corporate debt is clearly a significant current threat to financial and economic stability.

News Release: Civil And Consumer Rights Advocates Applaud House Passage Of Consumers First Act

“An effective consumer financial protection agency saves families billions of dollars a year, and makes their economic lives more secure. It fights lending discrimination, and shuts down tricks and traps” said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. “Unfortunately, the evidence keeps piling up that the current leadership at the agency is focused on rolling back protections and enabling bad financial actors to rip people off. It is so important that members of Congress continue pressing the CFPB to live up to its consumer protection mandate and fulfill its basic responsibilities, as the House has in passing the Consumers First Act today.”