LEHMAN ANNIVERSARY STATEMENT: HAVE THEY NO SHAME? That’s a question that Americans should be asking about the Wall Street lobbyists and their friends in Washington who, on this fourth anniversary of the event that triggered the economic meltdown of 2008-09, are mounting an aggressive new
Four years after the Lehman collapse, a new AFR Briefing Paper surveys the damage .
Imagine a world where banks can appeal to the highest office in the land for help if some pesky financial regulator tries to tell them what to do… In fact, there is a bill slouching its way through the Senate right now that would give the president of the United States the power to slam the brakes on new regulations that banks find insufficiently lenient…
A Senate committee may be preparing to approve a bill to impose White House cost-benefit review on a group of formerly independent regulatory agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
AFR submitted a comment letter to the CFPB on their proposed rules implementing Dodd-Frank changes regarding high cost mortgage loans. The letter argues against changing triggers for high cost loans for smaller loans which the statute allows but does not require, and argues that the proposal should be strengthened in various ways, including by making sure that borrowers in revolving lines of credit get the same protections as those in closed end mortgages.
AFR joined more than 50 organizations and individuals in signing onto a letter opposing S. 3468. The Independent Regulatory Analysis Act (S.3468) is a far-ranging proposal that would create major changes and lead to significant delays in the work of independent agencies. As all the major financial regulatory agencies are independent agencies this would have a profound effect on the progress of financial reform at agencies ranging from the Federal Reserve to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
AFR wrote to the Federal Housing Finance Administration asking them not to interfere in state and local use of eminent domain to aid homeowners in restructuring underwater mortgages
AFR sent a letter of opposition to members of Congress regarding S. 3468, The Independent Agency Regulatory Analysis Act, which would give the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) jurisdiction over all independent agencies in the federal government, including all of the financial regulatory agencies.
AFR sent out this letter to our press list today. It concerns the American Bankers Association’s plans to establish a 501C4 focused on U.S. Senate races.
AFR submitted a comment letter to the CFTC on the clearing mandate. This is the CFTC’s initial proposal for what derivatives will have to be cleared, and the CFTC has the ability to designate more swaps for clearing, which AFR recommends in the letter.