Americans for Financial Reform

Letter to Congress: AFR, 19 Organizations: CFPB, Dodd-Frank are Constitutionally Sound

“On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform, the leading public interest coalition that supported enactment of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) and its members, including the undersigned, we write both to explain the importance of the Act and to point out that, while numerous opponents of financial reform have challenged the act’s constitutionality, none have prevailed, in any court. “

Elizabeth Warren Video: The Story of Dodd-Frank

AFR Conference: Looking Back, and Ahead, on the Fifth Anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Act

Senators Sherrod Brown and Elizabeth Warren joined regulators and experts for a discussion of the progress made, and the work yet to be done, in building a financial system that is safer and fairer and does a better job of serving the real economy and the country as a whole.

AFR Statement: Appropriations Bill Is Backdoor Financial Deregulation

“In addition to [a] dangerous and highly partisan rollback of financial regulations, the legislation takes aim at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, despite, or perhaps because of, the fact that is succeeding at its job of making the consumer finance markets safer and fairer. The appropriations bill contains policy riders that would dramatically weaken the CFPB by making it the only bank regulator which does not have independent funding, and by replacing the CFPB’s single director with a five-member commission – a known recipe for gridlock.”

AFR Statement: AFR Welcomes Final Rules to Close Gaps in Military Lending Act

Today, in a win for servicemembers—who are too often the targets of harmful lending practices—the Department of Defense announced finalized rules to close gaps in the Military Lending Act (MLA) regulations that have allowed for exorbitantly high-interest rate loans to persist for men and women

Letter to Regulators: AFR Calls on Department of Labor to Protect Retirement Investors

“This is a huge problem – one that, over time, can easily add up to a difference of tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement savings. Under the current rules, some of the financial professionals offering retirement investment advice are legally bound to look out for the best interests of their clients; but other professionals, while perceived as having such a duty and clearly benefiting from the perception, are free to put their own interests first, even if that means saddling their clients with needlessly high fees or inappropriate risks.”

Letter to Congress: Lawmakers Should Let Federal Reserve Do Its Job

“On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), we are writing to express our opposition to “The Federal Reserve Reform Act of 2015”. Among other responsibilities, the Federal Reserve is the single most significant regulator of U.S. financial institutions, including the large Wall Street banks that played a central role in the 2008 financial crisis. “

AFR in the News: Elizabeth Warren says passing Dodd-Frank was like David beating Goliath (Business Insider)

“Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) spoke about the Dodd-Frank financial reform act in an interview with Americans for Financial Reform, an advocacy group. ‘David can beat Goliath – that’s the meaning of Dodd-Frank,’ said the senator, who was a founding member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, established under the act. ‘We built Dodd-Frank with the biggest, most powerful institutions fighting us every inch of the way.'”

AFR Video Commemorating the 5th Anniversary of Dodd-Frank with Senator Elizabeth Warren

AFR put together a video with Senator Elizabeth Warren to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Dodd-Frank, and to discuss the next steps facing financial reform.

Press Release: More than 230,000 Petition Signers Support a Strong Fiduciary-duty Rule for Retirement Investment Advisers

With the rulemaking process moving into its final stages, the Department of Labor received a delivery today of petitions in which more than 230,000 signers call for action to protect Americans against self-serving retirement advice. The signatures were gathered by CREDO Action, MoveOn.org, Americans for Financial Reform, and Public Citizen. Ethel Sprouse, the former Mayor of Cedar Bluff, Alabama, accompanied the petition deliverers and told her story at the event.