Tag Archives: Climate Change

Blog: Private Equity Barons Defend Tax Breaks from the Shadows

As lawmakers continue to crunch the budget on Capitol Hill, the private equity (PE) industry is trying to protect its coveted carried interest tax loophole, which rewards its extractive risk-taking and exploitation of workers, communities and the public. This time, private equity firms are using a network of companies that they own, financially support, or are associated with to project an artificial image of homegrown resistance. In Texas and Louisiana, PE has enlisted oil and gas producers to fight its fight. And more widely across the country, they have brought in corporate landlords to do the same.

Letters to Congress: Opposition to the FIRM Act

Americans for Financial Reform has been leading on opposition to the FIRM Act. This bill would force bank regulators to specifically disregard one category of significant financial risk – reputational risk – when assessing a bank for safety and soundness. Additionally, the bill would further

Fact Sheet: Visualizing the Home Insurance Crisis

AFR shared maps and statistics with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee prior to two hearings this month on the insurance crisis, which is compounded by climate change.

In the News: An Insurance Crisis Compounded by Climate Change Threatens the Broader U.S. Economy

“People place a lot of value, besides economic value, on where they live, and a lot of people don’t have the resources to move anyway,” said Alex Martin, policy director at Climate and Finance at Americans for Financial Reform. “People aren’t able to afford the cost increases that are coming right now. And if they can’t do that, just raising rates continuously will not be a holistic solution.”

News Release: NYC Comptroller Brad Lander Announces Asset Manager Accountability Policy on Earth Day

NYC Comptroller Brad Lander announced standards by which he will evaluate the net zero plans of the asset managers that oversee the city’s pension assets. He will recommend the boards of trustees of the city’s pensions pursue other asset management options through a bidding process should some of their current asset managers fail to meet those standards.

Blog: On Community Development, Bank Regulators Are Stuck in 1995

Banking has changed a lot since 1977, but CRA regulations have not been meaningfully updated in three decades. In 2023, the banking regulators modernized the old brick and mortar banking rules for the modern era and strengthened CRA performance evaluations. Under new Trump-appointed leadership, regulators are now inexplicably walking away from these improvements.

Letters to the Regulators: AFR and Public Citizen Letter to the New York State Department of Financial Services Proposal to Evaluate Nonbank Mortgage Lenders

Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund submitted a comment to the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) on its proposal to evaluate nonbank mortgage lenders in New York based on their performance in meeting the credit needs of the communities where they operate, including needs related to increasing climate risks on housing