Americans for Financial Reform

News Category: Blog

Blog: Why the CFPB Can’t Let a Trump-appointed Judge Gut the Equal Credit Opportunity Act

This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a notice of appeal in its redlining lawsuit against Townstone Financial and its owner Barry Sturner as part of an ongoing case. In 2020, the CFPB accused Sturner and Townstone, a nonbank mortgage lender, of violating the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) by discouraging prospective Black applicants from applying for their mortgages. Unfortunately, in February 2023, Judge Franklin Valerrama of the U.S.

Blog: Private Equity Can Kill: Help Us Fight Wall Street’s Deadly Power in Nursing Homes

Unbeknownst to most people with loved ones in nursing homes, it’s often nearly impossible to determine if the facility you’ve entrusted your family member to is owned by a private equity firm – an ownership structure that has been shown to result in worse health outcomes for patients, at greater cost. Within the past two decades, the once-obscure private equity industry has ballooned in size from $1 trillion in 2008 to nearly $4.5 trillion in 2021.

Guest Blog: Do Not Revamp or Defund the CFPB

Congressional Republicans have moved on to their next target for financial deregulation: Republicans in Congress and the consumer finance industry want to eliminate or hobble the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The agency has provided $16 billion in restitution or cancelled debt to 192 million consumers since the agency began operation in 2010. It’s one of the few institutions, public or private, that has earned Americans’ confidence in a long time.

Blog: Fed Should Ignore Megabank Lobby and Strengthen Capital Rules

As the Federal Reserve prepares new capital rules for American banks, Wall Street is rolling out its misdirection and bad arguments – as it has for much of the past decade – about why they should not be required to steel themselves against a crisis or downturn. And once again, regulators and Congress must be prepared to ignore their histrionics and strengthen capital requirements.

Blog: CFPB Supreme Court Case Draws Greater Attention as Threat to Federal Reserve

The gravity of what will be a landmark Supreme Court case involving the funding of independent agencies has become increasingly apparent to observers of the judiciary. Numerous media reports have highlighted how the case, aimed at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, threatens to upend the funding for many federal agencies, above all the Federal Reserve.