Americans for Financial Reform

In The News: Disentangling the economy from neoliberal financialization (Hewlett Foundation)

“Banks, investment firms, and other Wall Street titans have been allowed to secure a heightened level of control over the entire economy,” wrote Lisa Donner, executive director at Americans for Financial Reform. “With that control, they extract increasing amounts of wealth from workers and communities, and deploy an increasingly complex array of financial instruments and products that compound their revenue and their power.”

Letters to the Regulators: Letter to FHFA in Support of Tenant Protections

View or download a PDF of the letter here Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund joined the Homes Guarantee Campaign and over 300 national, state, and local organizations to call on the Federal Housing Finance Agency to require tenant protections in order to receive federal

Letters to the Regulators: Letter to PCAOB Supporting Proposed Audit Standards to Report Noncompliance with Laws and Regulations, Including Climate Regulations

AFREF joined Public Citizen in a comment urging PCAOB to strengthen and swiftly finalize its proposed updated audit standards around reporting noncompliance with laws and regulations and identifying risks of material misstatement in financial statements. Climate-related accounting fraud is on the rise, and many companies are misrepresenting their financial position by underestimating their asset retirement obligations and environmental liabilities, and failing to substantiate public climate commitments in their financial statements and SEC filings.

The proposed regulatory updates from PCAOB would strengthen auditors’ responsibilities to identify and report these types of misstatements and fraud and provide a significant benefit to investors by catching costly noncompliance issues early before they harm financial performance, and to the public by deterring corporate law-breaking and noncompliance.

In The News: DeJoy’s 10-Year Plan Could Gut USPS. He Doesn’t Want You to Know the Details. (Truthout.org)

“The bottom line is that the public has a right to more transparency and input in the decision-making process at a public institution,” wrote Annie Norman, the “Save the Post Office” campaigner at Take On Wall Street at AFR. “This requires engagement with said public — which DeJoy is actively resisting. When you put a rich, white, private-sector executive who isn’t used to public accountability and cooperation in charge of a treasured public institution, such a clash might be inevitable.”

News Release: Agencies Propose Basel III Endgame & Enhancements after 2023 Crisis

Washington, D.C. – The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency jointly announced on Thursday, July 27, a notice of proposed rulemaking to implement final components of the Basel III regulatory capital framework for Large Banking Organizations and introduce changes in response to the banking crisis of 2023.

Blog Post: The Exponential Growth of Private Credit: Risky and Nearly Invisible

Since the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, one of the murkiest corners of the financial market – private credit – has exploded in size as investors chase higher returns. Private credit, also referred to as non-bank direct lending, has become the fastest area of growth in corporate lending.

News Release: House Republicans Voted Against Fairness for Small Businesses in Trying to Repeal the CFPB’s 1071 Rule

Washington, D.C.- House Republicans’ vote yesterday to repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Section 1071 rule, which combats discrimination and increases transparency among small business lenders is yet another example of the agency’s opponents trying to undermine the work and efficacy of a popular agency, according to Americans for Financial Reform and a coalition of consumer advocates.

News Release: Dangerous Crypto and Accountability Bills Clear Congressional Committees Despite Major Objections from Consumer Advocacy Groups, Labor Unions and More

Washington, DC – House Financial Services Committee passed a series of bills this week that create light-touch rules for cryptocurrencies, limit investors’ and workers’ ability to hold corporations accountable, and hamper regulators’ ability to meaningfully participate in international governing bodies that set global standards for our financial system.

News Release: As Financial Risks from Climate Grow, Advocacy Groups Push FSOC to Enact Safeguards

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A coalition of advocacy groups today submitted multiple comment letters to the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) on two proposals that would strengthen its toolbox for addressing threats to financial stability, including those related to climate change, and make it easier to designate nonbank companies like asset managers and insurance companies as systemically important institutions that need enhanced regulation by the Federal Reserve Board. The comment periods on the proposals close on July 29.

Letters to Congress: Letter Opposing Anti-ESG Bills

Americans for Financial Reform sent a letter to the House Financial Services Committee opposing bills that undermine shareholders’ ability to make sound financial decisions and hold corporations accountable. In our letter, we provide an overview of the bills noticed during the various ESG hearings and briefly discuss why we oppose them.