“Marcus Stanley of Americans for Financial Reform, a group that wants tougher regulation of Wall Street, said that the NEC and Treasury would provide the core economic policy advice to the new administration and would have a tremendous voice in future regulatory appointments. ‘Trump talked about the rigged system. [This] is a recipe for maintaining that rigged status quo,” he said.”
On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), we are writing to oppose HR 5143, the “International Insurance Standards Act”. …Even without the amendment, HR 5143 places unreasonable and unworkable barriers on international negotiations important to the oversight of global insurance companies. We should not forget that an insurance company, AIG, was at the center of the 2008 financial crisis and received the largest taxpayer bailout in U.S. history. The $182 billion AIG bailout went to cover losses in investment banking type activities like the sale of credit default swaps and the securities lending business.
Americans for Financial Reform welcomes the news that the Department of Education has taken steps to protect both students and taxpayers by cutting off federal student loan money to Globe University and the Minnesota School of Business (MSB) — two for-profit institutions where the Department found
AFR joins 19 other organizations to express our opposition to H.R. 6392, the “Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2015.” This legislation increases the likelihood of big bank failures that could put at risk the economic security of millions of families.
“Far from improving systemic risk regulation, this legislation increases the likelihood of big bank failures that could put at risk the economic security of millions of families. It puts unprecedented new constraints on the ability of the Federal Reserve to provide basic oversight of large bank holding companies, including provisions that grant an unaccountable council of international regulators statutory powers over U.S. regulatory decisions. It would also politicize bank regulatory decisions, granting the Treasury Secretary of the incoming Administration new powers to pick and choose which big banks must follow basic safety rules.”
“‘Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s reported pick for Treasury Secretary, made himself enormously wealthy by cashing in on the country’s financial collapse,’ the liberal activist Take on Wall Street campaign said in a statement on Tuesday. ‘He purchased a bailed-out bank for pennies on the dollar and then aggressively foreclosed on tens of thousands of families.'”
“AFR is disappointed at the continuing extension of exemptions from swaps reporting for foreign dealers active in the U.S. markets. Some of the transactions to which this relief applies, such as transactions with supposedly non-guaranteed affiliates of U.S. banks, could be highly relevant to derivatives risks within the U.S. economy.”
“The budget is not the place to try to force through provisions that are dangerous to economic stability or to families economic security, would not pass alone, or that the President would likely veto. We strongly urge Members of Congress to oppose any flawed funding proposals that undermine the CFPB, the Dodd-Frank Act, the DOL’s conflict-of-interest rule, or other financial reform and accountability legislation or regulations.”
“[The] question is whether Dodd-Frank will be replaced or just torn down. If Republicans create a regulatory vacuum or simply allow the banks to write their own rules, [AFR’s Marcus Stanley] said, they will have gone too far. ‘It’s obvious that Dodd-Frank is going to come under severe attack both in Congress and the regulatory agencies,’ Stanley said… [T]he first question is going to be, What do you plan to do to actually address these Wall Street abuses? If the answer is, We’re not going to do anything … then that is something we are going to fight really hard on.”
“‘Trump ran an anti-establishment campaign focused on the economy,’ said Alexis Goldstein, a senior policy analyst for progressive nonprofit Americans for Financial Reform. ‘There was a huge focus on fighting for people who were left out. It’s already a betrayal of his supporters to staff up his transition team with hedge fund managers.'”