Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Consumer Federation of America, Food & Water Watch, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and Public Citizen sent a letter sharing their grave concerns with the justification and potentially calamitous precedent contained in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC’s) proposed rulemaking for the Investment of Customer Funds by Futures Commission Merchants and Derivatives Clearing Organizations. This proposal would expand the list of permitted investments for customer funds to include foreign debt which could put customers at undue financial risk — avoiding such risk was the rationale for prohibiting these transactions in 2011 after the MF Global meltdown.
The bank lobby is spending vast lobbying dollars to cloak themselves in the mantle of preserving access to credit. But the truth that the banks avoid debating is that the overwhelming impact of higher bank capital is – by design – to restrict how risky and how big the more speculative aspects of their business, notably their trading and investment bank operations can grow.
View or download a PDF of the letter here. AFREF along with other members of the Save Our Retirement Coalition led a letter in support of the Department of Labor’s Retirement Security Proposal, which would strengthen protections for retirement investors who week professional investment advice. The Department’s proposed rule would ensure that all investment professionals
View or download a PDF of the letter here Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund led 25 organizations in signing on to a letter calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to finalize and strengthen a proposed rule that would address a number of long-standing racial equity issues, make it easier for consumers to
View or download a PDF of the letters here: Fed, FDIC, OCC Long-Term Debt Requirements Fed, FDIC Guidance for Resolution Plan Submissions FDIC, Resolution Plans for Insured Depository Institutions AFREF submitted comments supporting proposals from the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which would strengthen
The Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF), the Institute for Policy Studies, Jobs to Move America, Communications Workers of America, United for Respect, and Take on Wall Street wrote a comment letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to recommend it be made explicit – in guidance accompanying the final rule – that local and state officials may take responsible action to consider stock buyback expenditures, exorbitant CEO pay, and private equity-driven leveraged buyouts and drastic cost-cutting when awarding federal funds.
