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AFR in the News: Banks Push to Delay Rule on Investments (Wall Street Journal)

“Banks are pressing U.S. policy makers for a multiyear delay of a rule requiring them to sell investments in private-equity and venture-capital funds…,” the Journal reports. The article goes on to cite critics of the calls for delay, including AFR’s Marcus Stanley. “This is supposed to be a regulatory option in special circumstances,” he told the Journal. “It’s not supposed to be an automatic permission for every bank to get a 12-year period after passage of Dodd-Frank to divest from venture funds.”

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AFR, Groups Statement on OCC Guidance to Banks on Selling of Charged-Off Debt

AFR join civil rights, consumer, and community groups in lauding the OCC for issuing a strong guidance regarding banks’ selling of charged-off consumer debts to debt buyers. The groups urged the agency to also take the next step and issue strong regulations to ensure that national banks do not continue to facilitate unfair, deceptive, and abusive debt collection practices.

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AFR in the News: Financial Services Influence – Follow the Money (Politico)

The financial industry has “spent more than $800 million on contributions to campaigns and on federal lobbying so far this election cycle,” PoliticoPro reports, citing AFR’s new report, “Wall Street Money in Washington,” which draws on data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. The report, as the paywalled story goes on to say, “found the financial sector has contributed $245 million to political campaigns, as of June 30, and spent nearly $560 million on lobbying through March.”

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AFR and Allies Call for Congressional Action on Student Loan Products and Servicing

“Against the backdrop of $1.2 trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt that is currently dragging on individual borrowers and the economy more broadly, it is imperative that our federal lawmakers take steps to change banking and financial firm practices that contribute to that debt burden.” – joint letter to Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

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AFR Urges Congress to Reject HR 5018

AFR sent a letter to members of Congress, urging them to reject HR 5018. This legislation would dramatically reduce the ability of the Federal Reserve to effectively regulate Wall Street banks and financial institutions by imposing complex cost benefit requirements that must be satisfied before any rulemaking can take place.

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AFR and Cato Institute Call on Federal Reserve to Institute Limits on Emergency Lending

In a joint editorial, Americans for Financial Reform and the Cato Institute criticize the Federal Reserve for not properly implementing new statutory limits on emergency lending programs, to prevent their use in future bank bailouts. “It is impossible to read the proposal and see how it limits Federal Reserve discretion,” say AFR’s Marcus Stanley and Cato’s Mark Calabria. “With the exception of a few actions aimed at single institutions, it appears that the actions taken in 2008, which so angered the public would still be feasible under the proposed rule.”

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CFPB Moves Forward on Expanded Reporting of Mortgage Data

Americans for Financial Reform, California Reinvestment Coalition, National Fair Housing Alliance, National People’s Action, New Economy Project, and Woodstock Institute praised the CFPB for proposing “a number of positive steps to improve the range and detail of mortgage application and lending information available to financial regulators and the public.” This kind of data, the statement says, “is crucial for regulators and the public to understand the mortgage market, who does and does not have access to credit, and on what terms.”

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AFR in the News: Ignore the Naysayers – Dodd-Frank Reforms Are Finally Paying Off

“This past year has seen significant advances on key issues of financial reform,” Mike Konczal writes in The New Republic, and “the issues where regulators are reluctant to take strong action are becoming increasingly apparent.” His article goes on to quote AFR Policy Director Marcus Stanley on the failure to “ban incentive pay that encourages inappropriate risk-taking, impose appropriate limits on the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending powers, bring real accountability to the credit rating agencies, and simplify the structure of global Wall Street mega-banks to ensure that they can be resolved safely.”