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.

Letters to Regulators: CFPB Should Finalize Residential PACE Rule and Develop Consumer Protections for Emerging Green Lending Products

Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund submitted a comment letter, endorsed by 20 partner organizations, to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)’s proposed rule on residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing.  The letter urges the CFPB to finalize the residential PACE rule swiftly to

Letter to Congress: Letter for the Record in Opposition to H.R. 4766, the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act of 2023

Americans for Financial Reform and Demand Progress sent a letter to Congress today expressing opposition to H.R. 4766, the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act of 2023. Both groups fear the bill as posted creates a regulatory pathway that is too permissive for so-called stablecoins (which are rarely stable) and that would fail to adequately protect consumers and increase the potential risks stablecoins pose to financial markets and systems.

Letter to Congress: Consumer Advocacy Organizations Oppose H.R. 4763, The Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act

Americans for Financial Reform and Demand Progress joined other consumer advocacy and public interest organizations in sending a letter to Congress expressing opposition to H.R. 4763, The Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, a bill intended to create a market regulatory structure for digital assets.

In The News: Are leveraged loans securities? (Financial Times)

Investor advocates counter that cutting out leveraged loans from the investor protections nearly all other investments enjoy is ridiculous. “Without securities laws, this market becomes a wild west of sorts,” says Andrew Park of Americans for Financial Reform. “The issue is not sophistication. Sophisticated investors couldn’t know themselves that the DOJ was investigating Millennium for Medicare fraud.”

Events: Lessons for Bank Regulation and Oversight from the 2023 Banking Stress

Please join the Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (“AFREF”) to discuss lessons learned from stressed conditions in banking during 2023. Keynote speaker Graham Steele, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions, will speak to the takeaways for bank regulation and oversight, followed by a distinguished panel of banking, financial regulation and climate finance experts moderated by AFR-AFREF’s Advocacy & Legislative Director Renita Marcellin

Blog: A Breath of Fresh Air Amidst “ESG Month”

Amidst a whirlwind of anti-ESG activity at the House Financial Services Committee this month, labor leaders and allies reminded Capitol Hill that workers’ hard-earned money is at the center of this controversy. The off-the-record briefing for Hill staff — titled “Protecting Workers’ Retirement Security from Anti-ESG Attacks” — was planned by Americans for Financial Reform and sponsored by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.