Americans for Financial Reform

Letters to Congress: Letter in Opposition of Egregious Deregulatory Bills Scheduled for Markup

AFR and partners led a letter opposing a set of financial institution bills scheduled for markup tomorrow, May 17th in the House. Title I of the first bill (H.R. 8337) is particularly egregious and would result in ~100 banking organizations being removed from CFPB oversight, among other negative consequences for Qualified mortgage requirements, the Durbin amendment cap, the Volcker rule and others. H.R. 758 compromises safety and soundness standards while not addressing the root causes of de novo bank challenges.

Letters to Congress: Letter to the House Financial Services Committee in Opposition to Profoundly Damaging Legislation

Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) wrote a letter to the House Financial Services Committee expressing our strong opposition to legislation that the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) is scheduled to consider this week that would amend the federal securities laws in ways that could be profoundly damaging to American workers and “mom and pop” investors.

News Release: Supreme Court Delivers Rare Good News for Consumers

The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the funding method Congress chose for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, allowing a vital agency to continue its work in holding Wall Street and predatory lenders to account, and promoting economic and racial justice. The case stems from a lawsuit against the CFPB brought by the Community Financial Services Association over a regulation that prohibited lenders from withdrawing funds from consumer accounts after two failed attempts due to lack of funds. CFSA, a lobby group for payday lenders, argued that the CFPB’s funding, which is drawn from the Federal Reserve, is unconstitutional.

Letters to Congress: Letter to The House Financial Services Committee in Opposition to Legislation That Erodes Consumer Protections

Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) and partners led a letter the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) to express our opposition to a legislation package that the committee is scheduled to markup this week. The collection of bills would erode consumer protections, enable predatory lenders, and hamstring the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability to fulfill its mandate

News Release: Stay of CFPB Late Fees Rule Denies Consumers Needed Protection

The decision by a federal judge in the Fifth Circuit to stay a rule capping credit card late fees is a blow not only to consumers but to the rule of law as right-wing jurists resort to increasingly extreme measures to block sensible regulation. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on March 5 finalized a regulation that caps credit card late fees at $8 in most cases, down from a typical $32. The rule is expected to save consumers about $10 billion each year, an average savings of $220 per year for the more than 45 million people who are charged late fees. The rule only applies to the largest credit card issuers, and was to have taken effect May 14.

Letter to the Regulators: Emphasizing the Urgent Need to Implement Key Executive Pay Rule, Dodd-Frank Act Section 956

AFREF and Public Citizen led a coalition letter urging the six relevant agencies to implement section 956 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which requires them to promulgate a rule banning incentive-based executive pay that incentivizes inappropriate risk-taking. A year after the 2023 banking crisis — and almost fourteen years after the statutory mandate was enacted — we do not have a rule to protect consumers, depositors, and the public from executives’ excessive risk-taking.

Fact Sheet: Crypto Harms by the Numbers

The crypto industry paints a picture of crypto as a tool for financial inclusion and economic prosperity. However, when one looks at the actual numbers, the industry’s record tells quite a different story – one of fraud, crime, scams, and economic hardship. Straightforward facts and figures outline the scope and scale of financial loss and harm that the crypto industry has inflicted on consumers and investors in the U.S. and around the world.

Letters to the Regulators: Letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Outlining the Need for Public, Transparent, and National Data Collection on the Property and Casualty Insurance Market

AFR joined the Consumer Federation of America and 18 other civil rights, housing, and climate advocacy groups in writing this letter to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners regarding the need for a public, transparent, and national data collection on the property and casualty insurance market.

News Release: Executive Pay Rule Could Reduce Incentives for Reckless Bank Risk Taking

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) voted to propose a rule implementing an important statutory mandate to ban incentive-based executive compensation that encourages reckless risk-taking, but two other regulators – the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission – have yet to do the same. Congress tasked six agencies with promulgating this critical rule when it passed the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. But only four out of the six were part of today’s proposal — the FDIC, the OCC, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

In The News: Banks Sell Loans to Private Credit in Balance Sheet Twist (Bloomberg)

“The major driver of the growth in private credit has always been to get around regulations,” said Andrew Park, a senior policy analyst who focuses on private credit at Americans for Financial Reform, a Washington-based coalition of consumer and investor advocates. He pointed to previous ways risk has shifted to non-bank markets when new rules are imposed. “The answer is not loosening bank regulations but rather properly monitoring and containing the risks in the private-credit market,” he said.