In The News: Supreme Court sounds skeptical of lenders’ challenge to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (LA Times

“Today was a bad day for predatory payday lenders and the Wall Street lobby groups that lent their names to some very ridiculous claims,” said Elyse Hicks, consumer policy counsel at Americans for Financial Reform. “None of their legal arguments passed the red-face test, and even the questions from the conservative justices reflected that reality.”

News Release: Broad Coalition — From Teachers to Housing Advocates to Consumer Groups and Small Business Advocates — React to Supreme Court Oral Arguments 

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) v. Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA), a case that could undermine the CFPB and create widespread havoc in the financial sector and our economy.  

CFPB

News Release: Legal Experts: Payday Lender Arguments “Fell Flat”

Washington, D.C. – This afternoon, Americans for Financial Reform held a virtual media briefing with the Constitutional Accountability Center and Democracy Forward to review the oral arguments in one of this term’s most important Supreme Court cases concerning the stability of the American financial system and the future of consumer protection: CFPB v. CFSA, a constitutional challenge to the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). 

In The News: Private Equity Blasts Antitrust Agencies’ Efforts to Slow Mergers (The Wall Street Journal)

Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of groups that advocates for tougher financial regulation, said that private-equity roll-ups of small companies have serious anticompetitive effects and need to be reined in. “The private-equity industry has become the primary driver of consolidation and merger activity in the United States and the predatory practices and economic extraction of private-equity firms from their portfolio acquisitions present unique risks to a competitive economy,” the group said in a Sept. 18 letter to the FTC and Justice Department.

Media Advisory: Press Briefing with Legal Experts to Review CFPB v. CFSA SCOTUS Oral Arguments

Washington, D.C. – On Oct. 3, at 12 pm ET (Time subject to change per end of arguments), Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) will host a virtual press briefing to review the oral arguments in one of this term’s most important Supreme Court cases concerning the stability of the American financial system and the future of consumer protection: CFPB v. CFSA, a constitutional challenge to the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). 

News Release: Supreme Court Ruling Against CFPB Could Worsen Government Shutdowns 

Washington, D.C. – A ruling by the Supreme Court against the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could imperil the functioning of numerous critical federal agencies that are funded outside of the annual appropriations process, a step that would worsen future government shutdowns and possibly impede the operations of the judiciary, according to Americans for Financial Reform and the former Republican chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Sheila Bair.