“Consumer groups are invoking Wells Fargo as they seek to persuade a handful of Republican senators to help defeat a potential September vote on a resolution blocking the arbitration rule. ‘We’ve definitely pointed to Wells Fargo as pretty much the poster child for why we need this rule,’ Amanda Werner, campaign manager at consumer groups Americans for Financial Reform and Public Citizen, told Bloomberg BNA.”
“The issuer-pays model remains an incentive for raters to go easy on clients, says Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform… ‘As long as ratings agencies are both central to securities markets and face incentives to inflate ratings and mislead investors, they pose a risk to the financial system…'”
“A new U.S. rule aimed at restoring consumers’ ability to band together to sue financial companies has survived its first challenge, as a top banking regulator on Monday said he would not petition for it to be suspended… ‘The rule is a well thought-out response to the serious consumer harm of forced arbitration,’ said Brian Marshall, policy counsel for advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform.”
“[A]s the seventh anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act approaches Friday, a coalition of progressive groups is pushing the party to get back on offense. The groups… organized under the banner of ‘Take on Wall Street’ — aim to crank up grassroots heat on elected Democrats. They want party leaders, though deep in the minority, to revive some of the get-tough measures they campaigned on last year, when they expected to win at least the White House.”
“Since most consumers cannot afford to take on a big corporation on their own, banks like Wells Fargo get away with ripping off large numbers of customers,” Amanda Werner, arbitration campaign manager with Americans for Financial Reform and Public Citizen, said in a statement. “This new rule will help prevent this kind of widespread fraud and ensure consumers can fight back.”
The political fissure between an Obama-appointed financial overseer and regulators hired by U.S. President Donald Trump is widening, with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Richard Cordray threatening to challenge in court any attempt to kill his agency’s new arbitration rule. To overturn a CFPB rule, two-thirds of the FSOC must agree that it puts the whole banking system at risk. “It’s an extraordinarily high standard,” said Brian Marshall, policy counsel for Americans for Financial Reform, a Washington-based advocacy group. “It’s ludicrous that the arbitration rule would meet that standard.”
