Joint Letter: Letter to FHA Urging Greater COVID-19 Protections for Borrowers
Coalition letter to FHA on clarifying and improving protections for borrowers facing hardship related to covid-19.
Coalition letter to FHA on clarifying and improving protections for borrowers facing hardship related to covid-19.
Linda Jun, a senior policy counsel for Americans for Financial Reform, a consumer advocacy group: “To this day, despite many people asking, they haven’t provided anything about the basis for changing this rule beyond some vague references to new research. It’s hard to see the reversal as anything other than political.”
Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund sent a letter to the Federal Reserve Board, urging them to avoid any actions which would permit the financial holding companies or any of their subsidiaries to directly or indirectly operate oil or gas companies. The letter highlights the manifold physical, economic, reputational and financial system risks of bank commodity holdings, risks have become even more severe with the recent dislocation in global energy markets. As these markets will be disrupted for an extended period, the letter asks the Board to firmly reject any effort by banks to use the situation with respect to defaulting loans in the energy industry to increase bank involvement in the oil and gas industry.
ACRE, AFSCME, the AFL-CIO, AFR Education Fund, the Consumer Federation of America, and Public Citizen sent a letter to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board concerning the need for broader public representation in governance of the Board and oversight of municipal lending markets. The letter is
Now, with 26 million workers unemployed and countless businesses closing indefinitely, private equity firms are salivating at the potential business opportunities that might arise from the expected economic fallout. Unless we take immediate action to prevent it, private equity firms will take advantage of this unprecedented crisis to make even greater asset grabs.
“Coronavirus distress is the ‘opportunity of the century’ for real estate investors,” according to a recent headline in The Real Deal, a New York real estate news publication. The article quotes Meridian Capital Group’s David Schechtman saying “But I will tell you, real-estate investors — when you take the emotion out of it — many of them have been waiting for this for a decade.”
More and more as we go about our lives, the money we spend is siphoned off to enrich Wall Street firms. Private equity’s pet profiteering is just one way these investors have taken over so much of the economy and our daily lives.
At the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, big banks will be paying some $13 billion in shareholder dividends. If this level of dividends continues for the rest of 2020, big banks could be permitted to pay out over $50 billion in dividends for 2020.
Predatory lenders shouldn’t get to take advantage of the terrible economic hardships of this pandemic. Congress must cap sky-high interest rates in the next Coronavirus relief package.
Americans for Financial Reform released a set of financial policy recommendations for Congress to fix the problems and loopholes in the CARES Act, to further protect and support individuals, families and communities in the face of this crisis, and to lay the groundwork for an equitable and sustainable economic recovery.
Note: On the afternoon this letter was sent the Federal Reserve announced it would be providing additional transparency in 13(3) facilities. See our comment linked here for earlier AFR Edcucation Fund communications with the Federal Reserve on this issue. Download a pdf of the letter