Americans for Financial Reform

Joint Letter: AFR Joins 16 Organizations in Urging Warren Buffett to Condemn Discriminatory Auto Lending

“Racially motivated discretionary auto dealer markups are a growing problem in the industry. As you know, in dealer financing, the dealer works with lenders interested in buying the credit contract. While the lender’s rate is based on the buyer’s credit profile, the dealer is given the authority to increase that rate and keep some or all of the difference as compensation. The additional charge is included in the interest rate, making it invisible to the buyer.”

AFR Statement: CFTC Should Discount Skewed Panel’s Report on Energy Market Speculation

“Today the CFTC’s Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee (EEMAC) issued an end-of-year report highly critical of mandated position limits in the energy markets. The CFTC and the public should discount this badly slanted report, and the CFTC should re-examine advisory committee membership to ensure that the public interest is properly represented.”

AFR Testifies Before House Financial Services In Opposition To Legislation That Would Roll Back Reforms of Securitization Market

“We oppose these efforts to roll back post- crisis reforms. It is particularly ironic that they are being advanced in the name of “increasing liquidity”. A central lesson of the crisis is that market liquidity can be excessive, and that such excessive liquidity leads to disastrous market crashes that have far more damaging liquidity effects than those that might be created by prudent limits on excessive leverage and risk-taking in normal markets.”

AFR Executive Director Discusses Next Steps in Financial Reform

At Center for American Progress event, Lisa Donner assesses the accomplishments and promise of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

AFR In The News: Moderate Democrats helped Wall Street avoid regulation in the ’90s. They’re doing it again. (Vox)

“There’s also a case to be made for the limits of cost-benefit analysis in general, as it tends to undercount benefits even when used in realms for which it’s better suited. What’s more, empowering OIRA to directly intervene in financial regulations could overwhelm the tiny office. As Americans for Financial Reform notes, OIRA “has only 50 employees, as opposed to tens of thousands of employees at the various [financial] regulatory agencies” and “lacks substantive expertise in financial matters.”

Letter to Congress: Protect Businesses and Consumers, Fully Fund the CFTC

“We are writing on behalf of Americans for Financial Reform to urge you to stand for consumers, businesses, and the public by fully funding the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The CFTC’s role in regulating commodity markets is vital to businesses that use commodity markets to hedge risks, vital to the economic well-being of American families who rely on affordable prices for products like gasoline and food, and vital to overall financial stability. “

AFR in the News: There’s a newish cop on the beat as Department of Education launches enforcement unit (Washington Post)

“The department must move quickly to discharge the debt of all Corinthian students,” said Alexis Goldstein, senior policy analyst at the progressive Americans for Financial Reform. “Hundreds of thousands of borrowers from Corinthian remain on the hook for federal student loans. … despite the fact that the illegal actions identified in department enforcement actions were endemic throughout the entire chain.”

AFR Statement: Student Aid Enforcement Unit, Department of Education Must Grant Swift Relief to Defrauded Corinthian Students

“It is good that the Department of Education recognizes the depth of the problems of fraud at too many for-profit institutions of higher education, as evidenced by the formation of the Student Aid Enforcement Unit. But hundreds of thousands of borrowers from the now-bankrupt Corinthian Colleges, Inc. remain on the hook for federal student loans, and continue to accrue interest. This is despite the fact that the illegal actions identified in Department enforcement actions against certain Corinthian schools were endemic throughout the entire chain.”

Letter to Regulators: AFR, 50 Orgs Suggest Improvements to Dept of ED’s Proposed Complaint System

“As advocates for students, consumers, veterans, faculty and staff, civil rights and college access, we believe the systematic tracking and reporting of student and borrower complaints is essential to providing quality customer service, ensuring college and loan servicer and collector accountability, and preventing waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars.”

AFR in the News: More oversight needed to curb abuse, reform hedge-fund industry (Orlando Sentinel)

“Hedge funds were major traffickers in the toxic securities that brought down the financial system eight years ago. Because many of them now market aggressively to pension funds and institutional investors, ordinary retirement savers can lose big when hedge funds fail to generate returns extravagant enough to justify their extravagant charges. More and more of these funds use stealth tactics to build up potent but undetected market positions, enabling them to aggressively bring about the results they’re seeking — results that serve their interests at the consistent expense of workers, communities, and the wider society.”