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.
“The SEC must stand behind the need to have basic transparency around stock buybacks,” Natalia Renta, senior policy counsel for corporate governance and power at the group, said in a statement.
ESG advocacy — Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Take On Wall Street are launching esgexplainer.org. They say it’s an attempt at “educating Americans about responsible investing” and “dispelling myths” about ESG.
“Banks make it very hard for consumers to choose where they want to go if they’re not happy with services,” Elyse Hicks, a lawyer specializing in consumer policy at the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform, told The Lever and The American Prospect.