This Week in Wall Street Reform
Click here to view this week’s highlights and lowlights in Wall Street Reform – January 2, 2012 – January 6, 2012 (also with news from the end of 2011).
AFR in the News: To Reclaim the Envy of the World, Wall Street Must Pay
“In other places, it is known as a ‘Robin Hood Tax’ and ‘Tobin tax,’ named for Nobel laureate James Tobin, who proposed in the early 1970s a tax on currency conversions. …A scaled-back tax of 1% would raise more than $200 billion, according to Americans For Financial Reform.”
AFR in the News: Obama Uses Recess Appointment to Name Cordray to Head CFPB
“Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, said in a statement after Obama’s recess appointment that ‘consumers won today when President Obama defied Wall Street interests to make a recess appointment’ of Cordray. Obama, she said, ‘stood with consumers and families in making this crucial decision.’ Now that the CFPB has a director, Donner went on to say, the CFPB “finally has its full authority to protect consumers everywhere in the financial marketplace, from a Wall Street bank to a payday lender or from a mortgage company to a credit bureau or anywhere else.'”
AFR in the News: Obama’s consumer bureau appointment raises political, legal stakes
“For many in the financial industry, much is riding on Republican efforts to force a reopening of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Law with the goal of giving Congress greater oversight and dispersing power at CFBP among members of a board rather than bestowing it all on a director. …But to leaders of Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of 250 national consumer, labor, civil rights and senior citizens advocacy groups, the arrival of a leader is vital because CFPB is the ‘linchpin of the entire Dodd-Frank law,’ said Marcus Stanley, AFR policy director.”
AFR in the News: Obama names watchdog agency head via recess appointment
“President Obama stood with consumers and families in making this crucial decision,’ Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, said in a statement. ‘Now that the CFPB has a director, it finally has its full authority to protect consumers everywhere in the financial marketplace, from a Wall Street bank to a payday lender or from a mortgage company to a credit bureau or anywhere else.'”
AFR Press Statement: President Obama’s Recess Appointment of Richard Cordray
Consumers won today when President Obama defied Wall Street interests to make a recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. President Obama stood with consumers and families in making this crucial decision.
AFR in the News: Thanks to Gridlock, Tax Prep Loans Live to Fight Another Day
“There is tremendous public support for holding Wall Street accountable, and for ending tricks and traps in the consumer financial marketplace,’ John Carey, spokesman for Americans for Financial Reform, said in a statement.
AFR Letter: Remittance Protections Must be in Compliance with Dodd-Frank
AFR joined Appleseed and the National Consumer Law Center in urging that the CFPB’s Final Regulations on remittances must deliver on Dodd-Frank’s promise of the new consumer protections and disclosures to protect people sending money overseas.
AFR Comment Letter: Determination of Systemically Important Non-Banks
AFR submitted a regulatory comment letter to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) supporting broad authorization for designation of nonbank financial companies that could pose a threat to the financial system.
AFR in the News: Rules of the Game: Volcker Rule Prompts Lobbying
“‘The forces arrayed on the sides of this battle are incredibly uneven, as they were also during the efforts to pass Dodd-Frank,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans For Financial Reform. But she added that the Dodd-Frank fight yielded key reforms, even against long odds: ‘The fight’s not done.’”