“The final regulations are a ‘significant weakening’ of the CFTC’s original proposal, Marcus Stanley, policy director of Americans for Financial Reform, which includes AFL-CIO and other labor unions, said in an e-mail today. ‘The numerous opt-outs, exceptions, and safe harbors in the final rule can effectively give swap dealers a free pass out of compliance with key statutory protections,’ Stanley said.”
“Another consumer group shared Roper’s concerns. ‘These rules, unlike the initial proposal, are simply not sufficient to fully implement the Dodd-Frank protections,’ Americans for Financial Reform said in a release.”
“‘No one wants to say out loud they’re unsophisticated,’ said Marcus Stanley, policy director of the Washington-based nonprofit Americans For Financial Reform, a coalition of unions and civil rights and consumer advocates.”
“The final rules on swaps dealer business conduct approved by the CFTC today represent a significant weakening of the Commission’s initial proposed rules in this area. The Dodd-Frank Act created a significant set of new protections for public entities and pension funds in the derivatives markets. These rules, unlike the initial proposal, are simply not sufficient to fully implement the Dodd-Frank protections.”
Read the letter that AFR signed onto, urging the OCC to withdraw proposed bank payday and overdraft guidance here.
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).
“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.”
“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.'”
“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.”
“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.'”