Americans for Financial Reform

News Category: AFR in the News

AFR in the News: FDIC Looks Into Big Banks Making Payday Loans

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is looking into payday loan-like products offered by U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and other lenders. The inquiry, according to the Portland (Ore.) Business Journal grew out of a February letter in which Americans for Financial Reform and more than 200 co-signing groups urged the FDIC to launch an investigation. In

AFR in the News: Consumer Groups Want Fair Lending Data Added to Mortgage Settlement

“Consumer groups are urging the monitor of the national mortgage settlement to add data on race, ethnicity and geography to determine whether the five largest servicers are offering relief to communities hit hardest by foreclosures,” The American Banker reports. In an Oct. 31 article, The American Banker cites a letter in which AFR’s Foreclosure Working

AFR in the News: Banks Say Regulators Should Rewrite Basel III Capital Rules

In a 181-page letter to federal regulators, the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Roundtable, and the Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association take aim at a set of proposed rules intended to ensure compliance with new international capital standards. Regulators should have “conducted an empirical study of the impact of the proposals on all

AFR in the News: After House Bill, Some Fear Holes in Muni Protections

“A lobbying campaign by the securities industry threatens to water down a U.S. financial reform measure that was supposed to protect American states, towns and cities from being taken for a ride by financial advisors,” Karen Brettell of Reuters reports. Under pressure from House Republicans, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has “raised the bar for

AFR in the News: Financial Watchdog Braces for Election

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau won’t be on the ballot next month. Just the same, its continued vitality, if not its very existence, could turn out to rest on the election outcome, according to Janna Herron of Fox Business. “The bureau has quickly become the industry’s policeman, ordering credit card companies to pay hundreds of

AFR in the News: Consumer Complaint Database Producing Results

Commerce Bank hiked the interest rate on Mira Tanna’s credit card to 20 percent – without telling her. Once she figured out what the bank had done, realized what happened, Tanna decided to make use of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new online complaint database, which had just gone live. “Why not try submitting a