AFR Report: Payday Lending and the Private Equity Business
New report offers details on over 20 cases of private equity investment in payday lending, and how the new owners or investors seek greater rewards from this predatory business.
AFR Statement: Bipartisan Senate Bill Rewards Banks While Leaving out Consumers
A bipartisan majority of lawmakers on the Senate Banking Committee last week rejected a series of public interest amendments in order to advance a bill full of gifts to banks.
Letter to Congress: AFR Opposes Multiple Deregulatory Bills Under Consideration by Financial Services Committee
AFR sent a letter to the House Financial Services Committee opposing multiple bills that would deregulate big banks and strip away investor protections. AFR Letter Re HFSC 12-12 Markup
Letter to Congress: Reject H.R. 4508, a bill that favors corporations that abuse federal aid over students
The reauthorization of the Higher Education Act should be a real opportunity to help students; instead, the PROSPER Act makes their lives worse in nearly every aspect. It raises repayment costs for struggling borrowers, lets institutions that scam students off the hook, and narrows relief for defrauded students.
AFR in the news: House bill turns its back on students to favor corporations that abuse the federal financial aid system (NBC THINK)
“Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-Va., the chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, introduced a bill last week that sells out students to corporate interests ready to get rich off taxpayer-backed education dollars. A bill reauthorizing the Higher Education Act should be a real opportunity to help students; this one just makes their lives worse by raising repayment costs for struggling borrowers, letting institutions that scam students off the hook, and narrowing relief for defrauded students.”
AFR Statement: Trump Tweets Tough on Wall Street As Record Shows Opposite
The notion that this administration is or will be tough on Wall Street doesn’t pass the laugh test, and that fact is evident in deeds, not tweets. Trump has put Goldman Sachs executives in the most senior positions in the government, and pushed for a giant tax cut for Wall Street.
AFR Statement: Public Interest Groups File Amicus Brief In Support of Leandra English as CFPB Director
Americans for Financial Reform joined a group of public interest advocates in support of Leandra English’s lawsuit to be recognized as the sole lawful Acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Testimony: AFR Policy Director Marcus Stanley Testifies to HFSC On Deregulatory Bills
AFR Policy Director Marcus Stanley testified to the Financial Institutions subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee on five pieces of proposed legislation. Written Testimony: Marcus Stanley Testimony To House Financial Services FI Subcommittee December 7 2017 FINAL The full hearing is available here: https://financialservices.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=402730
Joint Letter: AFR and 16 Organizations Oppose HR 2570 — A Bill Promoting Predatory Mortgage Lending
H.R. 2570 would open the door to predatory mortgage lending by making it easier for lenders to steer homeowners into high-cost, abusive deals on certain mortgages, especially on home equity lines of credit and construction loans
Letter to Congress: AFR Opposes HR 477 — the misleadingly labeled “Small Business Mergers, Acquisitions, Sales, and Brokerage Simplification Act of 2017″
Disguised as a regulatory relief for small businesses, this legislation would exempt from registration requirements merger and acquisition brokers of transactions involving quite large privately held companies, while opening a deregulatory window of opportunity for private equity firms to exploit.