The House of Representatives passed two ill-advised financial deregulation bills on November 18th. Both are giveaways to some of the country’s biggest banks. Both, if they ever became law, would mark a dangerous retreat from the financial reforms put in place after the financial crisis.
“Large regional banks like Washington Mutual, Countrywide, and Wachovia all failed during the financial crisis and placed a major strain on the financial system when they did so. These banks also played an important role in the epidemic of irresponsible mortgage lending leading up to the crisis.”
“Community Banks Have Returned to Profitability: The percentage of community banks that are profitable has increased every year since 2009. Over the first half of 2015, almost 95% of the nation’s 5,880 community banks showed a profit. Return on Equity is Up: Overall profit (Return on Equity) at community banks has also increased every single year since 2009, reaching a healthy 8.9% so far in 2015.”
“Supporters of the “Reforming CFPB Indirect Auto Financing Guidance Act,” which passed by a vote of 332 to 96, have tried to hide behind a smokescreen of baseless questions and false claims supplied to them by industry lobbyists. But the clear intent of this bill is to block the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from taking action to combat lending practices that lead to African-American as well as Hispanic and Asian-American borrowers being charged higher interest rates on auto loans.”
“We, the undersigned organizations, are writing regarding the current open seats for Commissioners at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It is vital that you nominate individuals who have both the publicly demonstrated commitment to financial reform and the financial markets expertise that is necessary to complete the implementation of crucial Dodd-Frank mandated reforms of our financial and commodity derivatives markets. “
“Do private funds drive positive change and improve efficiency? Or do they drive short-termism, job losses and systemic risk in our markets? Regulators have only just begun to shine a light on these funds, revealing a host of problems and raising many more questions about their operations. “
“Earlier this year, Senate Banking Chair Richard Shelby introduced the “Financial Regulatory Improvement Act of 2015” — a massive bill that gives a preview of the kind of regulatory rollbacks the financial industry will try to attach to end-of-year funding bills. In fact, Senator Shelby has already placed the entire bill into appropriations legislation that passed the relevant committee earlier this year.”
“‘Car dealers and lenders are attacking the guidance because they do not want the CFPB to enforce antidiscrimination laws in car lending,’ the nonprofit group Americans for Financial Reform wrote in a September letter to lawmakers. ‘They have known for decades that car dealer markups lead to discriminatory lending, and they would prefer the CFPB ignore this particular injustice.'”
“The undersigned organizations are writing to provide comments to the Treasury Department (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) on the proposed regulations relating to disguised payments for services between private equity partnerships and partners under Section 707(a)(2)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code. We strongly support the proposed regulations to close the loopholes in the tax code that permit private equity firms to lower their taxes by converting management fees, typically taxed as ordinary income, into capital gains. “
“The undersigned organizations write to urge you to oppose H.R. 1210 (the “Portfolio Lending and Mortgage Access Act”). This bill makes two harmful changes to the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) and its implementing regulations: It takes a special exemption designed for more trustworthy small and rural banks and extends it to all banks, regardless of size or trustworthiness and it substantially weakens the Act’s ban on loan steering—a practice that supports predatory lending and racial discrimination.”