Today, in a letter to Congress, 17 national advocacy organizations representing consumers, investors, and digital rights concerns called on the House Financial Services Committee to hold a hearing scrutinizing the steps tech giant Google (Alphabet) is taking to enter the cryptocurrency and digital assets markets, and how such moves might negatively impact privacy rights, consumer protections and safeguards against economic concentration. The call echoes concerns raised previously by advocates regarding Facebook’s designs on the financial services sector with the introduction of its now scuttled stablecoin, Libra (renamed Diem).
“The administration’s order includes the recognition that the rapid growth of digital assets as instruments for financial speculation is creating a wide range of serious risks and harms for consumers, investors, and the public at large. It is important that the order recognizes and articulates a set of these risks, and a whole of government approach can help address the scale and scope of the potential harm. It will be important for the studies authorized by the order to generate useful data and momentum for decisive regulatory action,” said Mark Hays, senior policy analyst with AFR and Demand Progress.
Today’s proposal from the Securities and Exchange Commission is a key step in bringing much-needed transparency for investors and accountability in the vast private funds market. The reforms it proposes would give pension funds that invest workers and retiree savings much more information, allowing them to better protect hard-earned dollars.
With new leadership taking the helm of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Americans for Financial Reform and more than a dozen other consumer and civil rights organizations have joined in calling for the FDIC to “stop permitting its supervised institutions to front for predatory lenders evading state interest rate limits.
In a letter addressed to Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, a coalition of 97 unions, civil rights, financial, and environmental groups declared their support for Dr. Lisa Cook, Dr. Philip Jefferson, and Sarah Bloom Raskin, all nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.
In response to news yesterday that the Meta (Facebook) backed Diem Association has been sold to California bank Silvergate, a financial institution friendly to crypto finance projects, Demand Progress Education Fund and the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund released the following statement.
