AFR led 58 organizations in expressing opposition to the anti-ESG policy agenda that seeks to insulate the management of public companies from investor input and accountability and undermine regulations that would equip investors with more information to make better decisions about their investments. It was submitted to the record ahead of six House Financial Services Committee hearings on the topic.
Washington, D.C. — Ahead of upcoming House Financial Services Committee hearings on utilizing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in investments, Americans for Financial Reform has submitted a letter for the record, backed by 58 organizations, that expresses strong opposition to the anti-ESG agenda. The letter specifically responds to a recent ESG Working Group memorandum on the subject and a series of bills they are proposing.
Americans for Financial Reform and Demand Progress joined other consumer advocacy and public interest organizations in sending a letter to Congress expressing opposition to a proposed bill intended to create a market regulatory structure for digital assets.
We are thrilled to announce that today, our Senior Policy Analyst, Alexa Philo was a panelist during a Bipartisan Policy Center business discussion on Bank Capital with the Federal Reserve Vice Chair, Michael Barr.
Washington, D.C. – The Biden administration and Congress should use all available means to curb the increasingly harmful effects of private equity’s control of massive swaths of the healthcare sector, according to a new report from Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund.
From A for Ambulance to Z for Zamboni, this book takes the reader on an alphabetical journey through the myriad ways that private equity has encroached into most parts of everyday life.
AFR opposes a series of legislative proposals that have recently been approved by House committees, and, in some cases, by the full House of Representatives, and that seek to amend the federal securities laws in ways that would be harmful to investors. Some of the House proposals directly weaken regulatory oversight and threaten investor protection, while others seek to alter policy in a more subtle or incremental fashion.
Washington, D.C. — Briefs filed by the payday lending lobby and John Eastman, the lawyer who tried to help former President Trump overturn the 2020 election, highlight the extremely weak legal case that this predatory industry has against the funding of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a vital federal agency that polices the financial services market on behalf of everyday people.
“Cox compares the restrictions on bank M&A with the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, first developed as a way to calculate concentration in the airline industry,” said Alex Philo, senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform. “The Department of Justice allows this to go up to 2,500 in other sectors, says Cox, but for banks, the limit works out at 1,800, and an acquisition can cause a bank’s index to jump by 200 points.”
A 2022 research memo from Americans for Financial Reform, a nonpartisan nonprofit coalition, found that private equity firms are now landlords to at least 1.6 million families across the United States. This figure is likely an underestimate.