Letter to the Regulators: Letter to the SEC Supporting PCAOB’s Standardized Firm and Engagement Metrics
Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund, joined by 9 signatories, submitted a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission strongly endorsing the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB) proposed standards. The standards would require firms to disclose standardized and comparable metrics that facilitate cross-firm comparisons and assessments of audit quality, providing critical data for investors to make informed decisions. The letter highlights that requiring consistent and comparative metrics will reduce opportunistic disclosures, simplify audit committee oversight, and foster a data-driven approach to regulation and audit quality.
News Release: CFPB Lawsuit Highlights Need For Safeguards on Digital Transactions
Americans for Financial Reform applauds today’s announcement of action against the nation’s three largest banks, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, for failing to protect consumers from widespread fraud and risky activity on Zelle, the most widely available peer-to-peer payment network.
News Release: Prospect of Walgreens Acquisition by Sycamore Bodes Ill for Retailer
The possible acquisition of drugstore chain Walgreens risks writing a new chapter in the long-running saga of private equity’s looting of the American retail sector, a trend that has caused the loss of over half a million jobs, numerous bankruptcies, and extensive consolidation that leads to higher prices, lower quality for consumers, and more precarious conditions for workers.
In the News: 10 Inequality Victories in 2024 (Inequality.org)
“Weakening the CFPB, slowing its work, or steering it to favor industry over the public interest,” explains the advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform, “would give bad actors a green light to do their worst and further deepen this country’s racial wealth gap.”
News Release: CFPB Finalizes rPACE Rule to Protect Green Lending Consumers
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CPFB) issued an important final rule on residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (rPACE), a form of green lending used to cover the cost of home improvements which is most commonly used for energy efficiency improvements and solar panel installations.
Letters to Congress: Letter Urging The Senate to Reconfirm Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw to the Securities and Exchange Commission
View or download a PDF of the letter here. Americans for Financial Reform and Public Citizen joined exactly 70 labor, community, consumer, environmental, and public interest organizations sent a letter urging the U.S. Senate to reconfirm Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Commissioner
In the News: Opinion: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has irked billionaires, but it serves the public well (The Los Angeles Times)
The billionaire Elon Musk and the California venture capitalist Marc Andreessen have started a debate about the role of government that we should be having — but it might not go the way they would hope. They don’t like government agencies that stop corporations like theirs from ripping off consumers.
News Release: Union, Financial Reformers Seek Replacement of CEO Rodney McMullen
One day after a failed mega-merger attempt with Albertsons, Kroger launched plans to repurchase a massive $7.5 billion of their own stock, a clear effort to boost short-term stock prices and save CEO Rodney McMullen’s job by lining the pockets of its already wealthy shareholders.
In the News: Crypto Could Barrel Us Into Another Financial Crisis (Jacobin)
“I think you could sort of look at this . . . as a signpost for the future,” said Mark Hays, associate director for cryptocurrency and financial technology at the consumer advocate group Americans for Financial Reform. “If things go wrong, a report like this is one of those things that you look back on to say, ‘What were the early warning signs?’”