Americans for Financial Reform strongly condemns the decision by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to abandon the victims of predatory colleges by delaying the Borrower Defense rule. This is a slap in the face to defrauded Americans, and a stunning admission by the Department of Education that they intend to place wealthy for-profit college executives ahead of students striving for a better life.
Treasury proposal advances ideas that have been pushed by industry lobbyists since Dodd-Frank was passed. We need more effective regulation and enforcement, not rollbacks driven by Wall Street and predatory lenders.
Financial advisers now owe their clients a duty to put their interests first when giving retirement advice. This change is a huge victory for ordinary Americans investing for a secure retirement, one that will put billions of dollars back in their pockets.
“’It’s a bill that’s so harmful to vast swaths of the American public…,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. “It would make it easier for predatory lenders to rip people off. It would make it easier for Wall Street to keep taking $17 billion out of retirees’ pockets by repealing the fiduciary rule. It would make it easier for big Wall Street banks to take the kind of risks in pursuit of short-term gains that go directly to the pockets of the tiny handful of people at the top that led to the financial crisis.’”
Consumers, investors and anyone who felt the impact of the financial crisis and recession will want to fight to ensure that not just the whole bill, but the set of dangerous proposals it includes, die in the Senate.
“’This legislation would be better dubbed Wall Street’s Choice Act as it would have a devastating effect on the ability of regulators to protect consumers and investors from Wall Street exploitation and the economy from financial risks created by too-big-to-fail megabanks,’ Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform, wrote in a letter to Congress on Wednesday.”
“H.R. 10, the ‘Financial CHOICE Act’… would be better dubbed ‘Wall Street’s CHOICE Act,’ as it would have a devastating effect on the ability of regulators to protect consumers and investors from Wall Street exploitation and the economy from financial risks created by too-big-to-fail megabanks. It would expose consumers, investors, and the public to greatly heightened risk of abuse in their regular dealings with the financial system, and our economy as a whole to a far greater risk of instability and crisis.”
A coalition of organizations delivered a petition with over 222,000 signatures calling on Congress to oppose the Financial CHOICE Act.
“Putting the greed of campaign contributors ahead of the public interest, lawmakers are preparing to take a wrecking ball to reforms that addressed a devastating financial crisis and recession.”
AFR submitted an additional set of economic growth policy ideas to the Senate Banking Committee, in addition to previous submissions responding to the Committee’s call for ideas. The submitted document is linked below. AFR Additional Economic Growth Submission To Senate Banking Committee