Wall Street banks and financial interests reported spending more than $1.4 billion to influence decision-making in Washington. That two-year total works out to an average of $1.9 million a day or about $2.6 million to elect or influence each of the 535 members of the Senate and House of Representatives.
AFR organized a briefing for Senate Banking staff on the regulation of large regional banks and the potential risks to the financial system that could emerge if regulatory authority over these banks is significantly diminished. AFR Policy Director Marcus Stanley and Professor Heidi Schooner of the Catholic University School of Law presented at the briefing.
AFR sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to oppose HR 1309, the “Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2015.” This legislation would make major deregulatory changes in Dodd-Frank directives concerning the oversight of some of the largest banks in the country. It would make it harder for regulators to take action to manage dangers to financial stability, and make it easier for individual large banks to use special pleading to escape from oversight.
In petitions delivered today to all 535 members of the new Congress, more than 274,000 Americans sound the alarm against continued efforts to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 to bring basic standards of transparency and fairness to the banking and lending markets.
AFR submitted comments to the CFPB on the agency’s proposed amendments to its mortgage servicing regulations. AFR appreciates the CFPB’s attention to dealing with continuing problems facing borrowers seeking loan modifications, supports proposed steps to address them, and urges further changes to do so more effectively.
The Department of Labor, backed by the rest of the Obama administration, has renewed its push to hold retirement advisers to tougher standards, seeking to require more brokers to act in the best interest of their clients. That effort has in turn spurred another bout of vigorous lobbying by Wall Street interests, keen on preserving the status quo… “There is just a tidal wave of opposition,” says Lisa Donner of Americans for Financial Reform, a consumer group that supports the proposed rules. “This has been a very long time coming.”
AFR sent a letter to members of Congress, urging them to oppose HR 1266, the “Financial Product Safety Commission Act of 2015.” This bill would change the structure of the CFPB; instead of being led by a single director, it would be headed by a Commission of five members, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. This change in structure would reduce the Bureau’s effectiveness in standing up for the public interest, and reduce the accountability of its leadership.
AFR sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to oppose HR 1266, and any legislation that weakens the authority of the CFPB to effectively protect consumer.
“We are concerned that the Securities and Exchange Commission — which has always prided itself on serving as ‘the investors’ advocate’ — appears in recent years to have strayed from its primary focus on its investor protection mission,” the letter stated. “Given the vital role that average investors play in our markets and the overall economy, and the serious shortcomings that exist in the regulatory protections they receive, it is time in our view for these issues to be prioritized.”
“Americans for Financial Reform is urging Congress to reject Rep. Ann Wagner’s bill to halt Labor Department’s fiduciary duty rule. In a March 10 letter to Congress, AFR says: ‘On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform, we are writing to express our opposition to HR 1090, the ‘Retail Investor Protection Act.’ This misnamed legislation in fact eliminates needed protections for retail investors … Financial professionals not covered by a fiduciary duty are legally free to recommend investments that benefit them, the seller of the product, at the expense of the customer who is saving for their future.’”