Americans for Financial Reform submitted today a statement for the record for the joint House Financial Services/Agriculture Committees’ subcommittee hearing on stablecoins entitled, “Putting the ‘Stable’ in ‘Stablecoins:’ How Legislation Will Help Stablecoins Achieve Their Promise.”
A new stablecoins bill proposal being discussed today in Congress would fail to adequately address the many risks that the industry posed to consumers, investors and financial markets, according to Americans for Financial Reform, Demand Progress and a dozen consumer protection groups. The bill is a focus of today’s hearing held by the House Financial Services’ Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion.
AFREF joined partner organizations to express concerns about the grave risks stablecoins pose to households and our financial system and urged the Committee to take the utmost care to not advance legislation that will increase these risks by expanding the reach of stablecoins without providing adequate protections. The letter highlights many elements that make the bill inefficient in providing adequate protections for consumers, investors, and financial markets.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 8, 2022 CONTACT: Carter Dougherty carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org (202) 251-6700 Collapse of Major Crypto Exchange FTX Is a Reminder of Crypto’s Instability Consumer Advocacy Groups Urge Regulators to Step Up Scrutiny; Warn Congress to Avoid Watered-Down Policy Responses Washington, DC – Today’s announcement
Today, in a letter to Congress, 17 national advocacy organizations representing consumers, investors, and digital rights concerns called on the House Financial Services Committee to hold a hearing scrutinizing the steps tech giant Google (Alphabet) is taking to enter the cryptocurrency and digital assets markets, and how such moves might negatively impact privacy rights, consumer protections and safeguards against economic concentration. The call echoes concerns raised previously by advocates regarding Facebook’s designs on the financial services sector with the introduction of its now scuttled stablecoin, Libra (renamed Diem).
AFR joined NCLC, CRL, NCRC, and Open Markets in sending a letter to Treasury Secretary Yellen opposing a bank charter for stablecoin issuers that would give them preemption rights without the full obligations and oversight required for insured depository banks.
AFREF submitted a letter to the Treasury today raising concerns that the President’s Working Group is considering recommending Congress create special bank charters to regulate stablecoins. We instead believe the President’s Working Group should clarify the existing authorities that each of the regulatory agencies have and call on those agencies to exercise their authorities now. We find this especially pertinent given the recent enforcement action brought Friday by the CFTC against Tether.
AFREF and five other organizations wrote a letter today to the Securities and Exchange Commission urging the Commission to review the exponential growth of digital assets, including “stablecoins”, and how their activities should be subject to the securities laws that exist to protect investors.
The AFR Education Fund sent a statement for the record to the House Financial Services Committee concerning Facebook’s proposal for the Libra digital token and payment system. The statement describes ways in which Facebook is attempting to create an unregulated financial product of potentially global scale and the dangers this would pose to the users of the token and the broader financial system.