Americans for Financial Reform

Government Category: Comments & Letters to Regulators

Joint Letter to Regulators: More Than 250 Groups Urge OCC Not to Offer Fintech Charters

“State laws often operate as the primary line of defense for consumers and small businesses; thus, the proposal puts them at great risk. The OCC must not undermine state rate caps. Interest rate caps are the simplest, most effective way to protect borrowers from unaffordable, high-rate loans and to align the interests of lenders and borrowers.”

Letter to Regulators: AFR Comments to CFTC on Improving Cross-Border Regulations of Derivatives

We strongly support using Consolidated Foreign Subsidiary (FCS) status as the basis for cross border enforcement rather than the more amorphous and subjective “guaranteed subsidiary” status. …We strongly disagree with the Commission’s proposal to exclude a wide range of transactions involving foreign branches and affiliates of U.S. swap dealers from external business conduct requirements.

AFR Statement: AFR Calls on SEC to Resist Industry Calls to Weaken Fund Derivatives Limits

We are deeply concerned that the Investment Company Institute (ICI) Letter lays out a set of changes to the Proposed Rule which wold effectively negate the derivatives exposure limits in the rule and render them useless as a tool for controlling speculative leverage at registered funds, as is required by the 1940 Act. …This change would not simply modify the relative weighting of derivatives exposures, but would result in a massive increase in the absolute limit on derivatives risk exposure.

Letter to Regulator: Over 700 National, State and Community Organizations Call for a Strengthened Final Rule on Payday and Car Title Lending

We, the undersigned 724 civil rights, consumer, labor, faith, veterans, seniors, business, and community organizations from all 50 states, write to urge that you ensure the current rulemaking concerning payday, car title, and high‐cost installment loans ends the debt trap. A strong rule must be free of loopholes that will allow predatory practices to continue.