Since Congress largely deregulated consumer deposit (checking and savings) accounts beginning in the early 1980s, the PIRGs have tracked bank deposit account fee changes and documented the banks’ long-term strategy to raise fees, invent new fees and make it harder to avoid fees.
View the PDF Version Here Mr. Chairman Capito, Ranking Member Maloney, Members of the Subcommittee: My name is Adam Levitin, and I am an Associate Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., where I teach courses consumer finance, contracts, and
Read the PDF Version Here “LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS TO IMPROVE THE STRUCTURE OF THE CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU” April 6, 2011 Good morning, Chairwoman Capito, Ranking Member Maloney, and so many of my good friends here on the Subcommittee. It is a pleasure and an honor
Republican lawmakers should stand down in their efforts to delay and obstruct the shaping of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which if properly implemented will go down in history as the most significant and innovative change to come out of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.
Read the PDF Version Here AFR Statement on House Financial Services Subcommittee Hearing on Proposals To Weaken CFPB Washington, DC – Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of more than 250 national and state organizations working together for strong Wall Street reform, issued the following
Incredibly, last week, in a letter to Professor Elizabeth Warren, House Financial Services Committee chairman Spencer Bachus (R-AL), along with key subcommittee chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), all but accused Professor Elizabeth Warren of lying to Congress in her recent, excellent testimony on the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Implementation team.
Dear Representative:
On behalf of the NAACP, our nation’s oldest, largest and most widely-recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization, I strongly urge you to oppose and vote against any funding cuts to the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
The recently introduced Responsible Consumer Financial Protection Regulation Act, H.R. 1121, aims to create a five- member commission to carry out the duties of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Consumers Union, the nonprofit publishers of Consumer Reports®, respectfully disagrees with this proposed change to the CFPB’s structure and strongly supports a single director as the most efficient and effective way to run the CFPB.
AFR submitted a comment on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed rule for Swaps Execution Facilities (SEFs). The Dodd-Frank Act gives the SEC authority over the trading of security-based swaps, such as the credit
default swaps that brought down AIG and helped trigger the financial crisis. The AFR comment criticized the proposal for not following the expressed intent of Congress that cleared security-based swaps be traded on open exchanges with transparent and competitive pricing. The current SEC rule would permit the continuation of swaps trading in opaque bilateral transactions. This type of trading helps big swaps dealers but is harmful to derivatives users and could increase systemic instability.
The American public wants and needs an effective Consumer Bureau to prevent rip-off financial products laden with tricks, traps, and hidden fees. Abusive financial products take tens of billions of dollars a year out of our pockets, sending them to feed the inflated bonuses of a handful of Wall Street CEOs.