Through policy analysis, advocacy, education, and outreach we are fighting for:
- Meaningful limits on the political influence of the financial sector, so that the job of rewriting the rules is not left to the inside players who caused the problems we now face
- Fair rules of the road for consumers and a strong, effective Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to set basic safety standards and protect families—and the market as a whole—from loans designed to trick and trap
- A banking system that helps people buy and stay in their homes and invests in communities and businesses to create good jobs and strong neighborhoods
- An end to the casino economy that allows Wall Street to make “heads we win, tails they lose” bets with our money
- An end to megabank bailouts and financial institutions that are “too big to fail”
- Executive compensation that rewards long-term value creation, not excessive risk-taking, with meaningful shareholder review
- A transparent and accountable Federal Reserve, independent of banking industry control
- Transparency for all financial products and markets
Our Issue Areas
Climate Finance
Despite the harm done to our communities and the significant risk climate change poses our financial institutions, banks continue to bankroll the fossil fuel industry. We push for rules to build financial resilience and enable a just and equitable transition.
Navigate the responsible investing landscape with us! Visit this site to help you understand why taking environmental, social, and governance factors into consideration should be standard practice for long-term investments.
Consumer Protection & Predatory Lending
From high-interest payday loans to junk fees on everyday purchases, big banks, Big Tech, and predatory lenders offer financial products that are riddled with engineered predatory practices and products that live off gains stolen from consumers while worsening the racial wealth gap.
Corporate Governance & Power
Today, Wall Street drives corporate decision-making to benefit the wealthy few and to the detriment of everyone else. It’s time to change the rules.
Fintech, Crypto, & Big Tech
Crypto assets are often used to cheat investors, harm consumers, and extract wealth from communities of color. We push for policies to protect people and the financial system from the widespread fraud and volatility endemic in the crypto industry.
Housing
We’re working to create a financial system that meets the housing needs of everyone, not just Wall Street, and corrects the harms caused by our history of racist housing practices.
Private Equity & Hedge Funds
Private equity firms are Wall Street companies that raise money from institutional investors and the extremely wealthy to buy companies, load them with debt, extract as much as they can for themselves, and dump them. Help us build a movement to fight back and win a more just economy for all of us.
Big Banks, Wall Street, Capitol Markets, and Systemic Risk
Are our banks safe, and our financial system resilient? Unfortunately not, as much of the banking system that should serve the real economy has turned into an unstable, money-extracting casino.
Additional Issues
We are fighting for a financial system free of inequality and systemic racism that supports a just and sustainable economy.
Support our fight for a just and sustainable economy.
Our Initiatives
The Private Equity Climate Risks consortium includes
Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, Global Energy Monitor, and the Private Equity Stakeholder Project.
Navigate the responsible investing landscape with us! Visit this site to help you understand why taking environmental, social, and governance factors into consideration should be standard practice for long-term investments.
We are facing a home insurance crisis. Premiums are skyrocketing, and many people can’t get insurance at all. We need solutions.
Is Our Economy Fair? is an interactive site that tracks the history of wealth extraction from women and people who are Black, Indigenous, and of color from colonization to the present day.
The U.S. Postal Service is the people’s most treasured public institution with universal service for everyone, regardless of their ZIP code. We must expand & protect a public post office, adding needed services like postal banking, because the Wall Street-backed private sector only cares about profit.
We come together to build a financial system for working families, white, Black, and brown, not big Wall Street banks. Our mission is to envision a better financial system together, train activists, cultivate political champions, and deliver policy change to restore the financial sector to its rightful place in service of the real economy.
Americans for Financial Reform does not receive tax-deductible contributions. A separate project, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, pursues related goals through a range of nonpartisan advocacy activities, and does receive tax-deductible contributions.