Letter to Congress: Joint Letter Supporting URLA Legislation
AFR Language Access Task Force and partner organizations sent up a letter in support of legislation to restore the URLA language preference question.
Letter to Regulators: AFR Urges FDIC Not to Weaken Securitization Safe Harbor
The AFR Education Fund wrote to the FDIC urging them to maintain comprehensive disclosure requirements for securitizations that are backed by depository banks. The agency is proposing to exempt private offerings from these requirements. Most of the toxic mortgage securitizations sold prior to the financial crisis were private offerings.
Op-Ed: Don’t buy what Zuckerberg’s selling on Libra (American Banker)
“When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before Congress this week, he’ll likely try to justify the launch of the Libra cryptocurrency in the face of regulatory attempts to block it. But make no mistake: This project is an effort to mint a global supercurrency — and harness power beyond government reach.” Raúl Carrillo, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Demand Progress Education Fund
News Release: Joint Statement from AFR & U.S. PIRG – Supreme Court agrees to hear case about limits of executive power
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the Constitution allows the president to fire the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) only for cause.
News Release: Disparate Impact Rollback Proposal Will Enable Discrimination
Today, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund submitted a comment to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in opposition to its proposed rule on disparate impact.
Letters to Regulators: Joint Letter to HUD Opposing Disparate Impact Rollback
The 45 undersigned consumer, housing, civil rights, labor, and community organizations write to express our strong opposition to the proposed changes to the disparate impact standard (“Proposed Rule”) as interpreted by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”).
News Release: The Students Not Profits Act will protect public dollars from abuses at for-profit colleges
Americans for Financial Reform welcomes the introduction of The Students Not Profits Act, let by Representative Pramila Jayapal, and Senators Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren. The for-profit college industry is plagued with bad outcomes for students, has a record of law breaking and abuse, and is responsible for 34% of student loan defaults, despite only enrolling 9% of post-secondary students. The Students Not Profits Act is a welcome and bold step to ensure that public dollars are not supporting and enabling malfeasance.
News Release: Top Questions CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger Must Answer
Over the course of two days, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Kathy Kraninger, is testifying before both the House Financial Services and Senate Banking Committees. These are the top questions that Director Kraninger must answer as she testifies:
Letter to Regulators: Coalition letter to CFPB on mortgage data disclosure (HMDA)
A coalition of 27 civil rights, community, consumer and other groups challenges CFPB’s consideration of reducing home lending disclosure, a critical tool to stop lending discrimination and hold banks accountable for their record of lending to communities of color and lower income neighborhoods.
Joint Letter: 42 Orgs Urge Senator Alexander to Protect Consumers and Taxpayers
On October 9th, AFR joined with 41 organizations representing in a letter to Senator Lamar Alexander expressing concerns regarding his recently introduced bill, the Student Aid Improvement Act. Unfortunately, the bill fails to include any provisions that hold low-quality and sometimes predatory colleges accountable, and better protect students and taxpayers. Any reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) must include robust consumer protections.