“The private-funds industry is trying to use its money and resources and a friendly court in order to push back on rule-making. That’s very simply what’s going on here,” said Andrew Park, senior policy analyst with Americans for Financial Reform, which supports the new SEC rules.
“The math isn’t mathing when it comes to property losses driven by climate change,” Caroline Nagy, senior policy counsel with the progressive group Americans for Financial Reform, said in an interview. “There’s a very good argument to be made that damage caused by climate change is an area where we need the government to take a role.”
“The CFPB has done its homework here,” said Carter Dougherty, a spokesman for the left-leaning Americans for Financial Reform. “Some banks have gotten rid of overdrafts entirely and the world is still spinning on its axis. If bankers can’t run a business without relying on gotcha fees, they should find a new line of work.”
Banks are spending “vast lobbying dollars to cloak themselves in the mantle of preserving access to credit,” [AFR] said. “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.”
Americans for Financial Reform flags that it now means all the banking agencies have majorities to move ahead with an unfinished rule from the 2010 Dodd-Frank law to address executives’ incentive-based compensation.
Given this level of investment, scrutiny of the private-equity insurance strategy is “totally appropriate,” said Patrick Woodall, a senior fellow at Americans for Financial Reform, a Washington nonprofit group that advocates for stronger checks on Wall Street firms.