With the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now in a position to regulate the practice, a new poll shows strong public sentiment against the use of forced-arbitration clauses in consumer finance contracts. The poll demonstrates wide, bipartisan opposition to forced arbitration as the House of Representatives prepares to vote on a multi-agency appropriations bill that would put roadblocks in the way of CFPB action.
High cost “quick-fix” consumer lenders reported spending more than $15 million to influence Washington decision-makers during the last election cycle, according to an updated report (view or download full report here) released today by Americans for Financial Reform. The Online Lenders Alliance (OLA) and Community Financial Services Association (CFSA) led the way, with combined contributions of
In May 2015, Americans for Financial Reform released a report showing how members of the 113th Congress voted on a selection of important bills, amendments, motions and nominations touching on the structure and regulation of the U.S. financial system. Through the votes described and tabulated here, lawmakers have left a record of their actions when facing
In recent months there have been calls to roll back regulation of large regional banks – institutions that hold over $50 billion in assets but are not among the eight U.S. mega-banks with a global footprint. In response to unfounded claims about the treatment of large regional banks under the Dodd-Frank Act, AFR has sent a briefing paper to congressional staff as well as the press.
Section 953b of the Dodd-Frank Act requires banks and other large public corporations to disclose the pay of their CEOs as a multiple of the pay of their median employees. Of the 400-odd rules mandated by Dodd-Frank, this one is arguably the simplest. But CEOs have lobbied against it both at the SEC and in Congress, and four years after the law was enacted, the Securities and Exchange Commission has yet to put the pay-ratio provision into effect.
