Blog: Antitrust Authorities Turn Focus to Private Equity Role in Monopolies
At long last, private equity is getting the attention it deserves from antitrust authorities as a force for consolidation, higher prices, and less consumer choice.
At long last, private equity is getting the attention it deserves from antitrust authorities as a force for consolidation, higher prices, and less consumer choice.
Polling [from Americans for Financial Reform] has consistently found that the public likes having a strong CFPB. It’s why banking lobbyists try to harp on images of government bureaucrats telling people what to do. But the public on the whole appreciates that the financial services industry is massive and powerful; it put nearly $3 billion into the 2020 elections, [according to AFR research].
AFREF submitted a comment letter in support of the SEC’s proposed rule on clawbacks of erroneously-awarded executive compensation. Once finalized, the rule will signify the long-overdue implementation of a Dodd-Frank provision that sought to improve incentives for honest and transparent corporate governance by creating a mechanism for the clawing back of compensation awarded based on inaccurate financial statements. AFREF submitted a comment in support of the proposed rule in 2015, and submitted this additional comment to answer questions raised by the Commission upon reopening the comment period
WASHINGTON – Today a coalition of consumer advocates filed comments with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), including a petition signed by more than 44,500 people and a letter describing hundreds of consumer complaints, urging the FDIC to consider Transportation Alliance Bank’s (TAB Bank) predatory rent-a-bank lending in assessing the bank’s performance in meeting community needs under the Community Reinvestment Act.
AFR joined a letter calling on President Biden to extend the payment pause on student loans until he cancels student debt.
WASHINGTON-D.C. — The irony of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has numerous corporate lawbreakers among its members, complaining about a government agency busting corporate lawbreakers is almost too thick for words.
Private equity firms have become some of the country’s biggest corporate landlords. Americans for Financial Reform estimated that as of June 2022, at a minimum, private equity firms owned real estate rented by around 1.6 million families.
AFR joined a letter to Congress in support of repealing taxation of Pell Grants.
A decades-long campaign to overturn Roe vs. Wade has succeeded thanks to a hard-right turn by a Supreme Court packed with justices appointed by President Trump. The right to abortion is more than a medical procedure. Reproductive freedom is an element of economic justice, and the restrictions and bans that are not long in coming will surely fall hardest on Black and Brown communities. Congress needs to act quickly to secure this right.
Washington, D.C. – The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services convened today to mark up a series of proposed laws, including a bill to close the industrial loan company (ILC) loophole. The ILC loophole allows Big Tech and other nonbank companies to offer financial products and services without complying with the safeguards and oversights required of bank holding companies.