Wall Street Lobbying Archives - Page 6 of 26 - Americans for Financial Reform

AFR in the News: Dodd-Frank Rollback Bill Advances in Senate (ThinkAdvisor)

“Americans for Financial Reform stated that the bill is ‘fundamentally misconceived: while its proponents claim to be focused on the needs of small community banks, the substance of the bill reads more like a deregulatory wish list for big banks and other large financial players.’ AFR stated that a ‘disturbing number of lawmakers are once again willing to act as shills for Wall Street and its discredited deregulatory agenda,’ adding that it’s ‘unlikely that this dangerous bill or anything like it will become law.’”

AFR Statement: Forgetting the Lessons of the Financial Crisis

“As today’s [Senate banking committee] vote shows, a disturbing number of lawmakers are once again willing to act as shills for Wall Street and its discredited deregulatory agenda. But the sharply divided nature of the vote is heartening. Ten of the committee’s 22 members voted against the bill. Their continued support for Wall Street reform, along with the public’s support, makes it unlikely that this dangerous bill or anything like it will become law.”

AFR in the News: Clinton’s populist theme heartens liberal donors (Washington Post)

“During her debut swing through Iowa this week, the former secretary of state pledged to promote a progressive agenda, stressing that ‘the deck is stacked in favor of those already at the top.’ That language struck a chord with members of [the Democracy Alliance]… [T]he organization is urging donors to contribute to an expanded suite of advocacy groups and think tanks devoted to economic inequality including Americans for Financial Reform, the Economic Policy Institute and the National Employment Law Project.”

AFR in the News: Democratic Support Wanes for Changes in Dodd-Frank (CQ Roll Call)

“Call it the Elizabeth Warren effect. The Massachusetts Democratic senator’s anti-Wall Street crusade may help explain a small but noticeable drop in support for big banks among Democrats on Capitol Hill. The decline turns up in an analysis of voting patterns during the 113th Congress soon to be released by Americans for Financial Reform, an advocacy group that promotes Wall Street accountability.”

AFR Statement: AFR Denounces Senate Budget Committee Move to Strip CFPB of its Independent Funding

“There should be no mistaking the intent or inevitable effect if this change were actually made: it would cripple the first and only financial regulator with a mandate to put consumers’ interests first… The result would be a green light for more of the tricks and traps that characterized the banking and lending world for too long, and that the CFPB is working to clean up.”

Updated AFR Report: Financial Sector Lobbying and Campaign Spending Top $1.4 Billion for 2014 Election Cycle – $1.9 million a day

Wall Street banks and financial interests reported spending more than $1.4 billion to influence decision-making in Washington. That two-year total works out to an average of $1.9 million a day or about $2.6 million to elect or influence each of the 535 members of the Senate and House of Representatives.

Online Petition: More than a Quarter of a Million Americans Tell Congress to Defend the CFPB and Oppose Efforts to Weaken the Bureau or its Rules

In petitions delivered today to all 535 members of the new Congress, more than 274,000 Americans sound the alarm against continued efforts to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created by the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 to bring basic standards of transparency and fairness to the banking and lending markets.

AFR in the News: Wall Street Fires Back at Obama Over Broker Standards

The Department of Labor, backed by the rest of the Obama administration, has renewed its push to hold retirement advisers to tougher standards, seeking to require more brokers to act in the best interest of their clients. That effort has in turn spurred another bout of vigorous lobbying by Wall Street interests, keen on preserving the status quo… “There is just a tidal wave of opposition,” says Lisa Donner of Americans for Financial Reform, a consumer group that supports the proposed rules. “This has been a very long time coming.”

AFR Statement: HR 50 Is a Gift to Wall Street

This legislation is the latest effort to cripple regulators’ ability to protect the public interest by loading them down with new paperwork requirements and enabling even more industry lawsuits. HR 50 would impose dozens of new analysis burdens on the financial regulators who oversee Wall Street, and then change the law to ensure the ability of big banks to sue to stop a regulation based on even a single claimed analytical failure.

AFR in the News: Wall Street reform groups blast House reg bills (The Hill)

“[B]ackers of tough Wall Street rules see the legislation as opening new doors for industry to take regulators to court, or requiring watchdogs to jump through even more hoops to write rules. ‘These bills, in slightly different and overlapping ways, basically put another thumb on the scale,’ said Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform. ‘But I would say it’s a lot heavier than a thumb. It’s another fist on the scale.'”