For those who have forgotten (or never fully understood) the tawdry details of the housing bubble and foreclosure epidemic, the Opportunity Agenda breaks it all down in “American Banksters.” This three-minute video aims to inspire public activism and help bring pressure upon the presidential candidates to address the housing crisis. Viewers are urged to sign
LEHMAN ANNIVERSARY STATEMENT: HAVE THEY NO SHAME? That’s a question that Americans should be asking about the Wall Street lobbyists and their friends in Washington who, on this fourth anniversary of the event that triggered the economic meltdown of 2008-09, are mounting an aggressive new campaign against financial regulation. Four years ago today, the venerable
AFR joined more than 50 organizations and individuals in signing onto a letter opposing S. 3468. The Independent Regulatory Analysis Act (S.3468) is a far-ranging proposal that would create major changes and lead to significant delays in the work of independent agencies. As all the major financial regulatory agencies are independent agencies this would have a profound effect on the progress of financial reform at agencies ranging from the Federal Reserve to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
AFR sent out this letter to our press list today. It concerns the American Bankers Association’s plans to establish a 501C4 focused on U.S. Senate races.
AFR signed onto a letter supporting the CFPB’s overseas remittances rule, which requires remittance transfer providers to provide essential information to consumers about the actual amount of money to be received by their family in the foreign country. The rule makes remittance providers liable for agents acting on their behalf and includes an error resolution procedure to resolve problems.
With the SEC poised to adopt its first major rule under the controversial JOBS Act next week, former regulators, securities law experts, and advocates for investors, workers, and older Americans have called on SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro not to move forward with rulemaking without first carefully examining the potential harm to investors, developing a regulatory approach designed to minimize those harms, and putting its regulatory proposal out for public comment. At its August 22 meeting, the SEC is reportedly considering lifting the ban on general solicitation and marketing in private offerings through an interim or temporary rule, a move that advocates say would be a clear violation of the letter and the spirit of the Administrative Procedures Act.