Americans for Financial Reform

Congressional Testimony: Renita Marcellin, AFR’s Advocacy and Legislative Director, Testifies Before the HFSC, Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy Subcommittee

On November 7th, AFR’s Advocacy and Legislative Director Renita Marcellin testified before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy supporting the Basel Endgame capital proposals. These capital proposals work to build a more resilient financial system and enable banks to better support the

In The News: How Banks Keep You Trapped (The American Prospect)

“Banks make it very hard for consumers to choose where they want to go if they’re not happy with services,” Elyse Hicks, a lawyer specializing in consumer policy at the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Americans for Financial Reform, told The Lever and The American Prospect.

Letters to Congress: AFR Letter for the Record in Opposition to a House Ways & Means Committee Anti-ESG Hearing

AFR wrote in opposition to the premise of the House Ways and Means Committee hearing titled “Ensuring what ‘Woke’ Doesn’t Leave Americans Broke: Protecting Seniors and Savers from ESG Activism.” This hearing is part of a much broader, unpopular campaign against common sense investment practices that seeks to force financial actors to ignore a slew of financial risks to the detriment of workers’ retirement security.

Letters to Congress: Coalition Letter in Opposition to Marked Up Anti-ESG Bills

View or download a PDF of the letter here. AFR and over 30 organizations wrote to House leadership in opposition to eight anti-ESG bills that were marked up by the House Financial Services Committee and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. These bills are part

News Release: Public Interest Groups Urge Strong Staffing Standards for Nursing Homes

Washington, D.C. – Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and 21 allied organizations submitted a letter urging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to pass the strongest possible rule mandating minimum staffing standards for long-term care facilities (CMS–3442–P). The letter also highlights the role of private equity firms, which own 11% of US nursing homes, and their particularly harmful business practices, like understaffing, that detract from resident care.

News Release: House Funding Bill Would Undermine Consumer Protections and Benefit Corporations

Washington, D.C. – House Republicans are moving forward with a funding bill (H.R. 4664) that would undermine much-needed consumer protections, roll back hard-fought reforms of Wall Street, and hamper our country’s ability to address the financial risks from climate change.

the outside exterior of the U.S. Treasury Department building

News Release: Regulators Should Swiftly Use New Guidance to Designate Risky Non-Banks

Federal agencies should move swiftly to identify systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) for heightened scrutiny now that they have finalized a process for this designation process, according to Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund.

News Release: More Rigorous Data Needed To Understand the Impact of Insurers’ Climate Decisions on Consumers

Treasury’s Federal Insurance Office (FIO) took an important initial step this week toward understanding how climate change is affecting homeowners insurers’ coverage and pricing decisions for consumers. Disappointingly, the notice of data collection was scaled back from earlier proposals, omitting queries critical to fully understanding the nature of the ongoing insurance crisis.

In The News: Yellen puts tougher policing of big financial firms back on the menu (Politico Pro)

“Many risks in the nonbank sector, from insurance to private equity to hedge funds to asset management, are becoming increasingly serious and in need of closer attention,” said Alexa Philo, senior banking and systemic risk analyst at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund.

News Release: Save our Retirement Coalition Groups Applauds Public Release of Dept. of Labor’s Proposal to Protect Americans’ Retirement Savings

Washington, D.C. – The following steering group members of the Save Our Retirement coalition – AARP, AFL-CIO, AFSCME, Americans for Financial Reform, Better Markets, Center for American Progress, Consumer Federation of America, Economic Policy Institute, and Pension Rights Center – commended the public release of the Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposed rule to protect Americans from conflicts of interest when financial professionals give retirement investment advice: