Americans for Financial Reform

Government Category: Comments & Letters to Regulators

AFR Urges Federal Reserve to Act Against Bank Ownership of Commodities

“Americans for Financial Reform supports the separation of banking and commerce as a foundational principle, motivated both by considerations of preserving fairness in competition with non-bank firms who do not have access to the prudential safety net, and by considerations of financial safety and soundness.”

AFR Comments on CFPB Rule on Defining Larger Participants in the International Money Transfer Market

AFR submitted a comment to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offering some suggestions on how to strengthen their proposed rule on defining “larger participants” in the international money transfer market. This proposed rule, if adopted, would be the fourth in a series of rulemakings to define ‘larger participants’ in various consumer financial product markets. AFR’s recommendations include expanding the criteria CFPB uses to define larger participants, and covering domestic as well as international money transfers under their supervisory purview.

AFR Calls on SEC to Strengthen Rules Governing Credit Rating Agencies

AFR, AFSCME, and the SEIU today sent the letter below to the Securities and Exchange Commission calling on the Commission to reproprose and strengthen its rules governing credit rating agencies. Conflicts of interest and deceptive practices at credit rating agencies were central to the 2008 financial crisis and continue to pose a threat to the economy today.

Letter to Regulator: AFR and more than 100 organizations push the Bureau to include longer-term, multi-payment products in expected CFPB rules on payday lending.

Americans for Financial Reform and the more than 100 undersigned consumer, civil rights, labor and community organizations write to urge the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to issue a strong rule to address unfair, deceptive or abusive practices in the payday and small dollar loan market. In particular, it is essential that any rule encompass the longer-term, multi-payment products that are already evolving in an attempt to evade expected CFPB rules.

AFR Criticizes Federal Reserve Proposal on Emergency Lending

AFR submitted a comment to The Fed voicing concerns over the very weak proposal on emergency lending. In the letter we recommend that the Federal Reserve place specific advance limits on the length of time that an institution can rely on emergency lending, as well as better controls to limit lending to truly solvent institutions.