Letter to Congress: AFR Urges House Financial Services Committee To Reject 19 Deregulatory Bills
AFR sent the letter below to the House Financial Services Committee urging them to reject nineteen deregulatory bills. AFR Letter Re HFSC 10-11 Markup
Tag Archives: OCC
Open Letter to Banks (and OCC): Don’t Make Debt Trap Payday Loans
“In 2013, the FDIC and OCC issued guidance aimed at curbing the harms of these debt trap loans. At the same time, the Federal Reserve issued a supervisory statement to the same end… But today, banks are attacking the FDIC and OCC protections that have prevented banks from trapping people in unaffordable payday loans.”
We write to ask for the bank’s pledge that it will not begin making payday loans, and that it will oppose the
rollback of the regulatory guidance, which would make it easier for other banks to do so.
AFR Statement: Oppose Quarles and Otting Nominations as Bank Regulators
The Senate should reject the Trump nominees for vice-chair of the Federal Reserve Board, Randal Quarles, and the Comptroller of the Currency, Joseph Otting.
Letter to Congress: AFR opposes nomination of Joseph Otting for Comptroller of the Currency
“Mr. Otting previously served as the CEO of OneWest from 2010 to 2015. During that time, the bank had a well-documented record of consumer complaints, a questionable response to regulatory inquiries, and executed tens of thousands of foreclosures. “
AFR Statement: Oppose OCC Bid to Control Consumer Protection
The OCC’s proposals would directly weaken financial regulatory protections and push aside other agencies so the OCC could take critical guardrails off of Wall Street on its own
Joint Letter to Regulators: More Than 250 Groups Urge OCC Not to Offer Fintech Charters
“State laws often operate as the primary line of defense for consumers and small businesses; thus, the proposal puts them at great risk. The OCC must not undermine state rate caps. Interest rate caps are the simplest, most effective way to protect borrowers from unaffordable, high-rate loans and to align the interests of lenders and borrowers.”
AFR Statement: Wells Fargo Called to Account for Abusing Customers’ Rights
“As the consent orders highlight, Wells Fargo’s egregious violations of consumers’ rights were fueled by sales quotas imposed on front-line bank workers. These settlements underline the importance of strong consumer protection enforcement from federal and local regulators. They highlight the particular importance of attention to bank compensation practices, including the need to make sure banks are not pushing their employees to harm consumers and break the law by requiring them to meet otherwise unattainable sales goals.”
AFR Letter: Mandatory Margin Requirements Needed for Uncleared Swaps
“Mandatory margin requires participants in the swaps market to take full account of the risks of their derivatives transactions and provide some level of advance provisioning for such risks. The availability of properly segregated margin is clearly of enormous value in case of the default of a swaps counterparty.”
AFR in the News: Regulators Propose Rule to Reduce Risk of Derivatives (NY Times)
“’This is a really important rule,’” said Marcus Stanley, policy director at Americans for Financial Reform. ‘Margin is the first line of defense in the derivatives market.’ The regulators made the changes to bring American margin rules in line with new international ones approved in 2013, and in response to public comments.
“’While it has taken us some time to get to this point, today’s action does represent significant progress,’ Thomas J. Curry, the comptroller of the currency, said in a statement.”
AFR, Groups Statement on OCC Guidance to Banks on Selling of Charged-Off Debt
AFR join civil rights, consumer, and community groups in lauding the OCC for issuing a strong guidance regarding banks’ selling of charged-off consumer debts to debt buyers. The groups urged the agency to also take the next step and issue strong regulations to ensure that national banks do not continue to facilitate unfair, deceptive, and abusive debt collection practices.