Americans for Financial Reform

Report Category: Fact Sheets

Fact Sheet: Budget Riders Watchlist, Stop Wall Street Giveaways

“Here are some of the major goals that the financial industry and its political allies hope to achieve through language attached to end-of-year appropriations bills. This list does not provide an exhaustive list of potential financial regulatory riders to funding bills, but does highlight the potential riders that have recently been most prominent in the debate. “

Fact Sheet: Don’t Deregulate Large Regional Banks

“Large regional banks like Washington Mutual, Countrywide, and Wachovia all failed during the financial crisis and placed a major strain on the financial system when they did so. These banks also played an important role in the epidemic of irresponsible mortgage lending leading up to the crisis.”

Fact Sheet: Community Banks Are Alive And Well Under Dodd-Frank

“Community Banks Have Returned to Profitability: The percentage of community banks that are profitable has increased every year since 2009. Over the first half of 2015, almost 95% of the nation’s 5,880 community banks showed a profit. Return on Equity is Up: Overall profit (Return on Equity) at community banks has also increased every single year since 2009, reaching a healthy 8.9% so far in 2015.”

What the Senate’s Wall Street Reform Bill Means

Key Provisions Go a Long Way Preventing Another Financial Crisis Washington, DC – The historic Wall Street reform legislation passed by the Senate on May 20 will have an impact on Main Street as well as Wall Street. The big banks will make every effort to dilute the bill in the House-Senate conference. Congress must

Brownback Modification Merely Provides Window Dressing, But Fails To Stop Auto Fraud

OPPOSE AMENDMENT #3789 Senator Brownback’s Modified Amendment #3789 which provides a special interest carve out for auto dealers, does not protect US military personnel or any other American consumer from the abusive and unscrupulous practices of some auto dealers. The auto dealer exemption, as now written, maintains the status quo and allows bad acting auto

Wall Street Influence, By the Numbers

$1.4 MILLION…The amount that the finance industry is spending every day to influence Congress. $600 MILLION…The amount that the six big banks and their trade associations have spent on lobbying, trade association activity, and political contributions since the first major federal bailout of Bear Sterns in March 2008. 243…The number of government insiders turned lobbyists employed by