“The undersigned consumer and civil rights organizations write to urge you to issue final prepaid card rules that prevent payday lenders and other predatory lenders from attaching dangerous credit features to the cards. We appreciate the strong elements of the proposed rules, which recognize that overdraft services are a form of credit and that credit accessed through cards must have the robust protections of the Credit CARD Act. While the proposed rules will stop some abuses, we are concerned that loopholes in the proposal can be exploited.”
“…responses to the RFI issued by the Department of the Treasury. The extraordinary diversity of on-line lending models and the rapid growth of the sector mean that continued monitoring will be necessary and the sector will likely fall into the purview of multiple regulators. We encourage the Treasury Department to remain active in determining the appropriate regulatory models, and we will further examine the responses to this RFI with interest to evaluate what types of regulation seem appropriate.”
“Over the forty years since the existing DOL rule was written, retirement markets have transformed and workers have become overwhelmingly reliant on self-directed savings. Due to the loopholes in the current rule, brokers providing advice on such self-directed savings can easily evade the fiduciary protections that Congress intended to provide to workers saving for their retirement through employment-based plans.”
“We are writing to express our concerns about, and in most cases our opposition to, a number of the bills being marked up in the House Financial Services Committee today. The bills we have highlighted below include harmful deregulatory measures that would reduce protections for consumers as well as the financial system as a whole. “
“This is a huge problem – one that, over time, can easily add up to a difference of tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement savings. Under the current rules, some of the financial professionals offering retirement investment advice are legally bound to look out for the best interests of their clients; but other professionals, while perceived as having such a duty and clearly benefiting from the perception, are free to put their own interests first, even if that means saddling their clients with needlessly high fees or inappropriate risks.”
“On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), we are writing to express our opposition to “The Federal Reserve Reform Act of 2015”. Among other responsibilities, the Federal Reserve is the single most significant regulator of U.S. financial institutions, including the large Wall Street banks that played a central role in the 2008 financial crisis. “
