“Nearly four out of five voters surveyed (78%) said financial rules and enforcement need to be strengthened, and that Wall Street’s bad practices have not changed enough,” writes David Weidner of the Wall Street Journal, citing a new poll conducted by Lake Research for Americans for Financial Reform and the Center for Responsible Lending. “And the furor overrides the political divide we’ve been hearing so much about. The poll found 84% of Dmocrats, 82% of Independents and 74% of Republicans say they are concerned about the influence of Wall Street financial companies on elected officials.”
“Americans for Financial Reform urged members of Congress to allow Operation Choke Point and other oversight of payment fraud to continue. ‘Banks are not always aware that they are being used to facilitate illegal activity,’ their July 15 letter said. ‘But when they choose profits in the face of blatant signs of illegality, they become an appropriate target for enforcement action.’”
““We had been warning for years about this loophole in the CFTC’s cross-border guidance,” Marcus Stanley, policy director for American for Financial Reform, told Bloomberg’s Silla Brush. “Now the CFTC seems to be letting it become an exit-ramp from Dodd-Frank.”
“Wall Street’s relentless lobbying campaign pressured regulators to dial down some of the reforms, but the overhaul law still has a lot of strength,” Danielle Douglas writes in the July 3rd Washington Post. Her article goes on to quote AFR policy director Marcus Stanley: “The regulators have the statutory authority,” he says. “The question is whether they are going to use that authority.”
“The bill includes… measures sought by the largest Wall Street banks and the Koch brothers, who control significant financial and energy derivatives operations,” writes Zach Carter of the Huffington Post. “Americans for Financial Reform, the premier policy analysis organization among bank watchdogs, advocated strongly against the bill alongside consumer groups and the AFL-CIO.”
In CQ, reporter Ben Weyl quotes from a joint AFR/CFA/NCLC letter to Senators: “Fighting payment fraud should not be controversial. Everyone benefits from efforts to stop illegal activity that relies on the payment system.” As Weyl goes on to note, “Conservative activists and GOP lawmakers have accused the Obama administration of pursuing law-abiding businesses that cross the administration’s agenda, including gun sellers.” But the known investigations launched in the name of Operation Choke Point have all been directed at out-and-out-fraud.
