FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 12, 2012 CONTACT: Erin Kilroy at 202-466-1885 erin@ourfinancialsecurity.org AFR STATEMENT ON SEC CONSOLIDATED AUDIT TRAIL RULE Washington DC – Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of more than 250 national, state, and local organizations working together for strong Wall
AFR released a statement regarding the approval of new derivatives rules by the CFTC and the SEC.
AFR signed onto a letter that was sent to the SEC urging them to adopt an investor-friendly approach that protects against the abusive sales practices in the private offering marketplace.
AFR sent a letter to the SEC and CFTC urging them to hold the line on their definition of swap dealer and not to radically change it.
AFR sent a letter to the SEC and CFTC urging regulators not to revise and loosen their original definition of ‘swap dealer’.
“President Obama’s FY 2013 budget request would increase the CFTC budget to $308 million…also increases funding for the SEC to $1.566 billion…AFR strongly supports the increased funding levels, and believes that adequate funding for these regulators is vital to holding Wall Street accountable, and preventing another financial crisis. Huge volumes of hidden and un-backed derivatives trades were a key cause of the financial crisis. …With millions of Americans still out of work, more than $8 trillion lost in home values and retirement savings, and millions of foreclosures it could not be clearer that Wall Street must not be allowed to gamble in the shadows.”
AFR submitted a comment letter to the SEC arguing that the rules are generally appropriate, but that the regulators should also make clear that they are prohibiting not just the specific examples of conflict of interest that came to light in hearings on the financial crisis, but all similar conflicts of interest.
Nine public interest organizations sent a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, asking the agency to reject the Carlyle Group, L.P.’s attempt to insert forced arbitration language into its registration statement for its initial public offering. The inserted language both limits shareholders’ rights and weakens the agency’s oversight abilities.
AFR sent a letter to SEC Chairman, Mary Schapiro indicating our objection to the SEC’s decision to delay implementation of Section IX of Dodd-Frank. This will result in the delay of corporate governance and executive compensation reforms necessary to the public interest.
Read AFR’s comment letter in response to regulators posing the questions of whether stable value contracts meet the definition of swaps in the Dodd-Frank Act, and, if so, whether they should be regulated as swaps or given an exemption. The letter points out that stable value contracts have the characteristics of swaps and also pose some of the same risks as swaps do. It does not take a specific position on whether stable value contracts should be subject to all swaps regulation, but does urge regulators to address these dangers by extending business conduct standards to issuers of stable value contracts and also to ensure that issuers of financial guarantees have sufficient resources to back up their promises.