News Release: Supreme Court Should Not Roll Back Investor Rights and Unleash Corporate Misconduct

WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 24, 2021 – New concerns are being expressed today by a wide-ranging group of organizations and experts who are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the rights and protection of investors against corporate misconduct. In a sign-on statement from 38 groups and individuals the authors warn the pending case “has potentially far-reaching and devastating implications” for investors and market integrity

Letter: Pension Funds Should Decline Blackstone Investments, Urge End to Political Contributions

Blackstone CEO Stephen A. Schwarzman’s ongoing refusal to firmly break with former President Donald Trump in spite of Trump’s role inciting the insurrection exposes investors to unacceptable levels of reputational risk. Schwarzman personally donated $3 million to a PAC supporting Trump’s 2020 campaign, money earned from fees and expenses paid for by your pension fund and the working people whose retirement savings you are responsible for investing.

News Release: Fed Right to Abandon Relief Measures for Big Banks

Today, banking regulators announced that they would not be extending one of the largest elements of pandemic-related regulatory relief, the exemption that allowed banks to remove almost $2 trillion in government securities assets from their balance sheets for the purposes of complying with capital regulations. That was the right thing to do. 

the front side of an apartment building

Letters to Regulators: Letter to the OMB Opposing Proposed Redefinition of Metropolitan Statistical Areas

AFREF joined a letter opposing the Office of Management and Budget’s proposal to redefine metropolitan statistical areas. The OMB’s proposal would result in a substantial loss for undeserved and under-invested communities by reducing the number of low and moderate income census tracts eligible for Community Reinvestment Act credit and decreasing the number of banks providing Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, which may pose increased challenges to fair lending enforcement.

Statement: AFR Decries Systemic Racism and Misogyny After Shooting Deaths in Georgia

We are deeply saddened by the deaths of the eight shooting victims in Georgia, six of them Asian women, and stand in solidarity with their loved ones and the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in mourning. The people murdered include Daoyou Feng, Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, Paul Andre Michels, and Xiaojie Tan, along with four victims who have not yet been identified.

These terrible murders come in the midst of heightened attacks on Asian Americans across the country, and starkly underline that anti-AAPI racism is pervasive and ongoing, and must be reckoned with in multiple ways. We decry the systemic racism and the misogyny that drove this racist violence, and all racist and misogynist violence, and pledge to be a part of seeking change. 

News Release: Experts: U.S. Supreme Court Ruling in Goldman Sachs Case Could Have “Devastating Consequences” for Investors, Market Confidence

Will the U.S. Supreme Court allow investors defrauded by Goldman Sachs during the financial crisis to have their day in court?  Or, will the Court rule in favor of Goldman Sachs and, in so doing, create a roadmap that publicly traded companies can use to make false and misleading statements that will harm Main Street investors and dramatically undermine market confidence by making it impossible for any investor to rely on the public statements of companies?