Consumer and civil rights advocates applaud the CARD Act’s success in saving Americans billions of dollars in predatory and excessive fees. By one estimate, the Act has saved consumers $12.6 billion; a recent report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau identifies nearly $4 billion annual savings in fees alone.
AFR sent a letter of opposition to a set of bills being considered before the House Financial Services Committee. These pieces of legislation would harm consumers and roll back protections put in place since the financial crisis.
AFR sent a letter to members of the House Financial Services Committee today asking them to oppose proposed changes to the already anti-regulatory JOBS Act that would further reduce investor protections within the bill.
“It’s absurd to suggest that DOL should step aside to wait and see” if the SEC acts, said Barbara Roper of the CFA. Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, added that Congress’ repeated requests for collaboration between the two regulators on their rules “feels like it’s a tactic, and is not grounded in either regulatory or statutory sense.”
“One investment adviser is sick and tired of the financial industry’s threat that mom-and-pop investors will suffer if investment-advice standards are raised,” writes Mark Schoeff of Investment News. At a media briefing in Washington hosted by the Consumer Federation of America, AARP, the AFL-CIO and Americans for Financial Reform, “Sheryl Garrett, founder of the Garrett Planning Network Inc., said that investors with low net worth can be served in a market where all financial advisers must act in their best interests.”
AFR joined five member organizations in sending a letter to members of Congress, urging that they oppose HR 2672, “The CFPB Rural Designation Petition and Correction Act.” This bill would amend the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act to allow for increased opportunity for lenders to sidestep important consumer protections, including rules to ensure borrowers have the ability to repay their loans.
“’You could potentially use this to unravel big chunks of Dodd-Frank,’ said Marcus Stanley, policy director for Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition that includes the AFL-CIO labor union. The CFTC should institute a default presumption that affiliates are guaranteed by their parent company unless a bank can prove otherwise, he said.”
In addition to taking consumer complaints (about mortgages, credit cards, student loans, bank accounts, credit reporting, auto loans, debt collection, payday loans, and money transfers, among other topics), the CFPB offers a variety of additional resources for consumers seeking to learn more about their rights in the financial system.
AFR sent a letter to members of Congress, urging them to oppose HR 4167. If enacted, this legislation would advance the interests of a few Wall Street mega-banks in weakening implementation of the Volcker Rule ban on proprietary trading.
AFR called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to require the release of loan-level data for asset backed securities, which include the ‘toxic assets’ central to the financial crisis. The AFR comment includes a discussion of privacy controls.