Yesterday, a majority of members of the House Financial Services and Agriculture Committees voted to approve H.R. 3633, the so-called CLARITY Act, a bill written by and for the crypto industry that will reward predatory and exploitative crypto business models and leave consumers, communities, and investors with weak protections and little recourse when the next speculative crypto bubble inevitably bursts.
“If (stablecoin issuers) have to move those Treasuries quickly, or the market demands that, it could create some credit crunches there,” said Mark Hays, associate director for cryptocurrency and financial technology at Americans for Financial Reform. Hays said this assumes that stablecoins become more widely used after legislation passes.
The Republican Congress has proposed severe budget cuts to the CFPB that prevents the agency from fulfilling its statutory mandates to protect people. The attempt to shut down the CFPB protects powerful banks, predatory lenders, and tech billionaires instead of standing up for people all to help pay for tax cuts for the rich.
Americans for Financial Reform endorses Rep. Green’s “Systemic Risk Authority Transparency Act” that would require banking agencies to report any future uses of the systemic risk exception under the Federal Deposit Insurance Act.
AFR and 30 civil rights, labor, community, consumer protection, and economic justice organizations sent a letter calling on the Senate to swiftly act to defend the statutorily mandated independence of financial regulators in the face of unprecedented attacks and firings of commissioners and board members.
Americans for Financial Reform and five other public interest organizations submitted a letter urging U.S. Senators to oppose the nomination of Michelle Bowman to serve as Vice Chair for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Increasing the tax on corporate stock buybacks encourages investments in the real economy, discourages excessive executive compensation that widens economic inequality, and raises funds to protect healthcare, nutrition, and other programs that help working families. Raising the buybacks tax to 4 percent would generate $166 billion in revenue over the next decade, and encourage companies to reinvest in workers and innovation instead of inflating their share prices and juicing executive compensation.
Congress, its eye on a futuristic form of finance, is debating legislation that would legitimize stablecoins, a specific type of cryptocurrency linked to the U.S. dollar. But lawmakers eager to do the bidding of this new industry are ignoring the transformation of the American regulatory system and allegations of corruption in the second Trump administration.
The Consumer Federation of America, Americans for Financial Reform, Public Citizen and U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) called on the nation’s insurance firms to stop underwriting oil and gas projects, along with investing in fossil-fuel companies. The groups say backing fossil-fuel companies causes consumers’ insurance premiums to grow annually.
Americans for Financial Reform has been leading on opposition to the FIRM Act. This bill would force bank regulators to specifically disregard one category of significant financial risk – reputational risk – when assessing a bank for safety and soundness. Additionally, the bill would further