The Next California Insurance Commissioner Must Fully Restore The Consumer Intervenor Program

The undersigned organizations, with cumulative membership and affiliation of over 500,000 Californians, denounce California Insurance Commissioner Lara’s recent rollback which will effectively incapacitate the Prop 103 Consumer Insurance Intervenor Program by making it harder for consumer intervenors to engage and fund their efforts to challenge rate hikes. This insurance industry giveaway will result in less public input on insurance rate setting which will mean people pay higher insurance costs across the state. The next Insurance Commissioner must reverse course.

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Letters to the Regulators: AFREF Opposes Trump CFPB Effort to Eviscerate Small Business and Farm Lending Disclosure

View or download a PDF of the letter here AFREF submitted a comment opposing the Trump administration effort to undermine civil rights and fair lending law by severely weakening the small business and farm lending disclosure rules that would exempt half of all loans, reduce essential data collection, and exclude farm lending entirely. 

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Letters to the Regulators: Letter to the California Department of Insurance Highlighting the Need for Climate Risk Planning

Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Public Citizen sent a letter in response to the California Department of Insurance’s Long-Term Solvency Planning Proposal, highlighting the need for insurers to comprehensively address both physical and transition risks across underwriting, investing, and operations.  “Insurers need to develop climate plans that encompass both climate mitigation and climate adaptation […]

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AFREF Opposes the Crypto Exchange Coinbase’s Attempt to Get a Bank Charter

AFREF filed comments in opposition to giving Coinbase, the nation’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, its own bank charter. The proposed new crypto bank would impermissibly combine commerce and banking, create giant risks to the financial system and economy when the next crypto crash inevitably occurs, and gives Coinbase the public benefits of being a member bank of the […]

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AFREF, CFA, Prof. Wilmarth Submit Letter to the FDIC Warning of the Dangers of Industrial Loan Company Bank Charters

AFREF, Consumer Federation of America and Prof. Art Wilmarth submitted comments to the FDIC warning about the harms to consumers, communities, and the financial system that would ensue from expanding the industrial loan company (ILC) bank charter loophole to Big Tech, crypto, and other predatory financial firms.

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AFREF Letter Opposing Weakening Bank Capital Requirements That Could Increase the Risk of Financial Crisis

AFREF submitted a comment to the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the FDIC criticizing a dangerous proposal to weaken critical bank capital standards put in place after the 2008 financial crisis that would increase the likelihood and severity of a financial crisis that could imperil the entire economy.

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Letters to the Regulators: Take Back Tesla: Letter Urging State Financial Officers to hold Musk Accountable

Americans for Financial Reform joined labor and progressive advocacy groups representing millions of workers in a letter to state financial officers who oversee pension funds that hold billions of dollars in shares of Tesla, urging them to oppose excessive pay packages for Tesla CEO Elon Musk, warning it would put workers’ retirement savings at unnecessary risk and undermine corporate accountability. […]

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