The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today finalized a plan to bring long-overdue transparency to the practice of companies buying back their own stock. However, the final rule weakened key aspects of the initial proposal.
Washington, D.C. – The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today finalized a plan to require private funds, which include hedge funds and private equity firms, to disclose more information about their investments to the SEC.
Washington, D.C. – The sale of First Republic Bank to JPMorgan Chase this weekend has highlighted the urgency of strengthening guardrails around Wall Street megabanks while also laying the groundwork for a longer-term effort to reduce concentration in the banking sector.
Washington, D.C. – The report by the Federal Reserve on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank only highlights the need for federal regulators to tighten oversight of banks as soon as possible to both remedy the errors of the past, and to forestall further financial contagion. At the same time, a fully independent probe of the Fed’s actions, including its leadership, remains vital.
The Federal Reserve’s deregulatory and light touch approach to regulation and supervision paved the way for the bank failures that have shaken the financial system this year and that led to extraordinary government intervention to preserve financial stability. Below we suggest a set of changes the Fed can make without Congressional action that would increase financial stability and put the welfare of the public ahead of the narrow interests of big banks and Wall Street.
Alexa Philo, a former bank examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform, said the Fed could adopt stricter rules on its own, without relying on Congress. “It is long past time to roll back the dangerous deregulation under the last administration to the greatest extent possible, and pay close attention to the largest banks so this crisis does not worsen,” she said.
Washington, D.C. – New Congressional hearings today on crypto regulation will likely fail to adequately address the many risks that the industry posed to consumers, investors and financial markets by crypto assets and actors, according to advocates with Americans for Financial Reform and Demand Progress.
Washington, D.C. – The investigation into the crisis unleashed by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank must scrutinize Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s role in the lead-up to the crisis, according to a fact sheet released by Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund.
“Despite its public statements to the contrary, Carlyle is a driving force behind climate change through its substantial financing of greenhouse gas emitting sectors,” said Oscar Valdés Viera, co-author and research manager at the Americans for Financial Reform education fund.
AFREF joined a comment letter to OMB on revising their race and ethnicity data standards.