Category Archives: Reports, Fact Sheets, Background Papers

a photo of skyscrapers

Analysis: Antitrust and Banking Agencies Must Block Capital One-Discover Merger

The $35 billion takeover bid would vault Capital One into 6th place among the biggest U.S. banks and create the largest U.S. credit card lender, ahead of current leader JPMorgan Chase. This new company could raise prices for cardholders, especially lower-income consumers and Black and Latine households and give Capital One the power to jack up debit card fees on merchants. In short, it would reinforce the megabank monopoly power that is already a serious problem in the American economy. The Biden administration must stand up for consumers, communities, and small businesses and block the Capital One-Discover merger.

Report: Wells Fargo: We Go Far Beyond The Law

Wells Fargo, the San Francisco-based megabank, has been embroiled in a series of scandals, lawsuits, and customer abuses over the past decade. Despite public outrage and legal actions, the bank’s executives have failed to address the issues adequately. They have been accused of lying to Congress, neglecting shareholder complaints, and evading accountability for their wrongdoings while claiming to make improvements. 

News Release: Subprime Corporate Debt, Hitting $5 Trillion, Brings Defaults, Slower Growth

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.

Report: Lessons Learned from the Paycheck Protection Program

The Paycheck Protection Program, a critical pillar of the CARES Act pandemic relief legislation, failed to equitably distribute money despite an avowed goal of focusing on small businesses, according to a new report from AFREF and six other public interest organizations and labor unions.

Report: Results of a nationwide survey: Retail investors’ support for the SEC mandating climate-related financial disclosures from public companies

A nationwide survey of retail investors was conducted between March 18 and 29, 2022, by Embold Research on behalf of Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Public Citizen. Broadly, these survey results show that investors care about climate-related risks and opportunities of public companies, support the SEC requiring climate-related disclosures with third-party audit, and would factor the information disclosed into their investment practices.

Report: OpenGate Capital

View or download a PDF of the full report here. Open Gate Capital The Private Equity Stakeholder Project Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund   In 2017, OpenGate Capital, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm bought HUFCOR, which manufactures portable room partitions for hotels and