Consumer Advocates Respond to New Report on Credit Cards and the Impact of the CARD Act
Consumer Action’s press release Consumers Union’s press release National Consumer Law Center’s press release
Really Small Wall Street Tax Could Make a Really Big Difference
Congress will soon be back from recess – and back to gnashing its teeth over the budget and the various important things that, too many in that branch of government now contend, our country can no longer afford to do. They could expand their sense of the possible by considering a source of revenue they have so far largely ignored – a small tax on sales of stocks, bonds, and complex financial instruments.
AFR Appeals for Strong SEC Action to Regulate International Derivatives
Overseas affiliates of U.S. banks played a major role in the final meltdown of 2008-2009, at a cost of millions of jobs and trillions of dollars. Financial institutions must not be allowed to escape oversight by “off-shoring” their riskiest deals.
AFR in the News: Obama Presses for Action on Bank Rules
President Obama urged the nation’s top financial regulators on Monday to move faster on new rules for Wall Street, telling them in a private White House meeting that they must work to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.
SEC Urged to Maintain Independence of its Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board
AFR and its member organizations warn against a proposal that would “severely weaken” the independence measures called for by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. “A Board dominated by employees of major banks and dealers with subsidiaries active in the municipal market will not be a truly independent Board.”
AFR in the News: Why Are Bailed-Out Banks Still Allowed to Bet on Derivatives?
The banks did not get everything they wanted, according to Forbes. But, in AFR’s words, their foreign subsidiaries “will still be permitted to escape Dodd-Frank jurisdiction… for an inappropriately broad range of transactions.”
Consumer Groups Urge FTC to Ban Payment Systems Favored by Scammers
14 consumer organizations submitted a joint letter to the FTC supporting a proposal to ban telemarketers from using remotely created checks and remotely created payment orders, payment systems commonly used by scammers. The letter also called on the FTC to extend the proposed ban to cover all consumer transactions, not just those conducted via phone.
Praise for Ellison Bill to End Mandatory Arbitration in Investor Disputes With Brokers and Advisors
Under current practice, investors seeking brokerage and other financial advisory services must agree in advance to submit any complaints to arbitration by an industry-run regulatory body. The Investor Choice Act would restore the right of investors to take such disputes to a court of law, if they prefer.
AFR Applauds Introduction of Reed-Blumenthal Bill to “Stop Subsidizing Multimillion Dollar Corporate Bonuses”
By eliminating an exemption for “performance-based” pay, this bill would cap the tax deductibility of executive compensation at $1 million, as a 1993 law only pretended to do.
AFR in the News: Taking the Measure of Dodd-Frank Three Years Later
“The progress of the CFPB has been the most impressive” result, said AFR Policy Director Marcus Stanley. “In 2009, very few people would have predicted that a few years later there would be a fully operational and independent consumer financial protection bureau.”