Americans for Financial Reform

Letter to Regulator: AFR and more than 100 organizations push the Bureau to include longer-term, multi-payment products in expected CFPB rules on payday lending.

Americans for Financial Reform and the more than 100 undersigned consumer, civil rights, labor and community organizations write to urge the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to issue a strong rule to address unfair, deceptive or abusive practices in the payday and small dollar loan market. In particular, it is essential that any rule encompass the longer-term, multi-payment products that are already evolving in an attempt to evade expected CFPB rules.

Underfunding the CFTC Endangers Financial Reform

The Commodities Futures Trading Commission is one of the critical agencies in financial regulation. The Dodd-Frank Act gave the CFTC responsibility for overseeing the vast and previously unregulated financial derivatives markets that helped crash the world economy in 2008. This increase in responsibilities led to an eight-fold growth in the size of the markets that the CFTC was responsible for, yet the CFTC’s funding is completely inadequate to fulfill its new oversight responsibilities.

Auto Lending: The Hidden Costs of Car Loans & Their Discriminatory Impact

Tuesday Mar. 20: Capitol Hill briefing sponsored by Americans for Financial Reform, Center for Responsible Lending, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, NAACP, National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Consumer Law Center and National Council of La Raza.

New AFR Report: Where They Stand on Financial Reform

“Surveys show high levels of voter support for tougher rules; apart from the Senate’s confirmation of two notable regulatory officials, however, most of last year’s congressional votes on such matters were over efforts to reverse or water down reforms already enacted into law. And while some legislators resisted those efforts and continued to press for more industry accountability, many others – particularly in the House – threw their weight behind a series of proposals to weaken existing rules or to undermine the agencies charged with implementing them.”

AFR Calls for Strong Rules on Payday Lending

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s latest report on payday lending reaffirms what the Bureau’s initial research showed a year ago: these ultra-high-cost loans, while promoted as a form of emergency credit, consistently lead to a cycle of debt. Even after paying substantial fees, many borrowers end up “owing as much or more on their very last loan as the entire amount they had borrowed initially,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray pointed out.

Members of Congress Speak Out Against Wall Street’s Effort To Evade Derivatives Rules

Nineteen members of Congress, led by Barney Frank, a lead author of the Dodd-Frank Act, filed the amicus brief linked below speaking out against the efforts of major Wall Street derivatives dealers to overturn key Dodd-Frank derivatives rules. The brief was drafted by former Just

AFR Statement On CFTC Extension of No Action Relief For European Trading Facilities

Six weeks ago, the Commodity Futures Commission issued a staff letter granting temporary permission for U.S. derivatives to be traded on certain European trading platforms that are not compliant with Dodd-Frank rules on transparent derivatives trading. This temporary permission for rules-free trading was only granted

AFR in the News: The Fed Was Supposed to Rein in Its Bailout Powers. Instead It Did This.

“The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law required the Fed to restrict its emergency lending powers so that too-big-to-fail banks don’t expect the central bank to dole out easy money again in the event of another financial crisis,” writes Erika Eichelberger of Mother Jones. Three years later, the Fed has come out with a draft rule that “misses the mark,” interpreting “the statute in ways that minimize limits on emergency lending authority.”

AFR in the News: Shadow Banking Subtext

The National Review’s Reihan Salam examines the case for stronger regulation of nonbanks and “market-based financing,” and the political power of those, like the Blackstone Group’s Tony James, who are trying to convince the Obama administration to go slow. Salam expresses an “ideological bias” in favor of James’ position, while acknowledging the “serious and interesting” counter-arguments of AFR’s Marcus Stanley.

AFR Letter Opposes HR 4167 – Do Not Create Loopholes in Volcker Rule Risk Protection

AFR sent a letter to members of Congress, urging them to oppose HR 4167, which would exempt almost all collateralized loan obligations issued before January 14th from Volcker rule restrictions on bank sponsorship of external funds, allowing banks to continue to hold these instruments. Because managers of CLOs can buy and sell assets this would create a major loophole in Volcker rule prohibitions on proprietary trading.