We strongly disapprove of the new proposal to change rules for derivatives trading announced in today’s meeting of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The requirement that complex derivatives be traded whenever possible in open, competitive markets was a crucial element of Dodd-Frank derivatives market reforms.
Today’s proposals to restructure capital and liquidity requirements for large banks represent the latest chapter in the gradual chipping away of post-crisis financial reforms. The proposals go well beyond anything required by Congress, and significantly weaken requirements for large banks to hold cash and easily salable liquid assets to satisfy payment requirements in times of economic stress.
The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) announced that it has reversed its designation of Prudential Financial, Inc. as a systemically important financial institution (SIFI). The Council, under the leadership of Secretary Mnuchin, has now freed from Federal Reserve consolidated oversight the last of the four previously designated nonbank SIFIs.
View or download PDF version of the letter. July 11, 2018 Dear Representative: On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) and the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), we are writing to oppose four of the bills under consideration at today’s markup, HR 3555,
Americans for Financial Reform sent a letter to the House of Representatives urging members to oppose the harmful financial deregulation in HR 5877 and HR 4537.
Stress tests are forecasts based on models. They stand or fall on the approach of regulators, whose assumptions can seriously underestimate bank losses. Before the 2008 financial crisis regulatory models also showed Wall Street was safe, but that turned out to be fantasy.
Americans for Financial Reform sent a letter to members of the House Committee on Financial Services urging them to reject two bills in today’s markup.
Americans for Financial Reform sent a letter to members of the House Committee on Financial Services urging them to reject two bills in today’s markup.
Americans for Financial Reform sent a letter to members of the House Committee on Financial Services urging them to reject five bills in today’s markup. The bills would harm investor protections and undermine oversight of the insurance industry.
This proposal is no minor set of technical tweaks to the Volcker Rule, but an attempt to unravel fundamental elements of the response to the 2008 financial crisis, when banks financed their gambling with taxpayer-insured deposits. If implemented, these proposals could turn the Volcker Rule into a dead letter, a regulation that would not meaningfully restrict trading activities.