We call on the Bureau: to require reporting on the full breadth of small business lending; to capture important data about loans applied for and made; and to complete the rulemaking and begin collection of these data expeditiously.
“Americans for Financial Reform… noted that the [Treasury] report followed recommendations from The Clearing House, a powerful trade association, in 31 out of 40 specific cases. In some instances, the language of the government and the language of the lobbyists was hard
to tell apart… ‘We’ve reached a point in this administration when big banks and private-equity funds have placed so many people in the top jobs, they hardly need to worry about lobbyists and trade associations any more,’ says Jim Lardner, a senior fellow at AFR”.
In its rush to eviscerate the Dodd-Frank reforms, Treasury Department adopted over three-quarters of the ideas put forth by The Clearing House, an association of the biggest U.S. and international banks
“‘This legislation takes the worst ideas concocted by Wall Street and predatory lenders, and combines them into one toxic package,” [Lisa Donner, director of Americans for Financial Reform] said. ‘The bill is crammed with deregulatory gifts to the entire industry, including megabanks that want to return to the excessive borrowing and risky practices that led to the financial crisis.’”
Treasury proposal advances ideas that have been pushed by industry lobbyists since Dodd-Frank was passed. We need more effective regulation and enforcement, not rollbacks driven by Wall Street and predatory lenders.
“’It’s a bill that’s so harmful to vast swaths of the American public…,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. “It would make it easier for predatory lenders to rip people off. It would make it easier for Wall Street to keep taking $17 billion out of retirees’ pockets by repealing the fiduciary rule. It would make it easier for big Wall Street banks to take the kind of risks in pursuit of short-term gains that go directly to the pockets of the tiny handful of people at the top that led to the financial crisis.’”
“’This legislation would be better dubbed Wall Street’s Choice Act as it would have a devastating effect on the ability of regulators to protect consumers and investors from Wall Street exploitation and the economy from financial risks created by too-big-to-fail megabanks,’ Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform, wrote in a letter to Congress on Wednesday.”
A coalition of organizations delivered a petition with over 222,000 signatures calling on Congress to oppose the Financial CHOICE Act.
“‘The [House Financial Services] committee has passed a bill that would give Wall Street and assorted predatory lenders a free hand to abuse consumers, and investors, and would increase the likelihood of another financial crisis,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of the group Americans for Financial Reform. ‘It is an enormous package of gifts for Wall Street and the worst actors in finance.’”
“‘The level of venom directed at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that is successfully carrying out its mission of preventing tricks and traps that harm American families, is astounding,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, a nonpartisan and nonprofit coalition of consumer and other citizen groups. ‘The changes proposed by the legislation only make sense if you want to weaken consumer protections and make it easier for Wall Street, and predatory lenders, to profit by cheating people.’”