“People get this really easily—we’re giving a whole lot of rich people more money for no reason other than them being rich,” says Mandla Deskins, advocacy manager at Take on Wall Street, an organization pressuring members of Congress to jettison this tax break. “It’s not necessarily dead,” Deskins says of the most recent effort to close the loophole, “but it is definitely on pause.”
AFREF joined Consumer Federation of America and Better Markets in a comment letter in response to FINRA’s request for comment on complex products calling for protections that extend beyond greater disclosures for retail investors who are vulnerable to losing significant amount of money unexpectedly on a number of complex and risky products.
AFREF joined a letter in response to the CFPB’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding the Prohibition on Inclusion of Adverse Information in Consumer Reporting in Cases of Human Trafficking.
AFR led a letter to Congress with 26 signers in support of the Opportunity Zone Reform Act.
In this statement, AFR focuses in particular on the CFPB’s recent enforcement successes, the need to retain its authority, and some of the CFPB’s existing and future priorities.
WASHINGTON – Today, National Consumer Law Center, Americans for Financial Reform, Consumer Action, Empire Justice Center, National Community Stabilization Trust, National Fair Housing Alliance, UnidosUS, and National CAPACD applauded the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (FHFA) announcement that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will make it mandatory for lenders to use the Supplementary Consumer Information Form (SCIF) during the loan application process.
WASHINGTON – In response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) call for public input on how to save Americans billions in junk fees charged by financial companies, leading consumer advocacy organizations submitted an extensive comment letter detailing junk fees across a wide range of consumer financial products and services. The letter was submitted by Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL), Consumer Federation of America (CFA), the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC), and National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) (on behalf of its low-income clients).
AFR joined CRL, CFA and NCLC in sending a comment letter to the CFPB in response to their request for information on junk fees.
Washington, D.C. – Seventy percent of investors support the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requiring all public corporations to disclose standardized information about their financial risks due to climate change. This finding comes from a new nonpartisan survey of investors completed by Embold Research on behalf of Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Public Citizen.
AFR’s Senior Policy Analyst Renita Marcellin testified at the House Financial Services Committee’s Task Force on Financial Technology’s hearing “What’s in Your Digital Wallet? A Review of Recent Trends in Mobile Banking and Payments.”