“The undersigned organizations are writing to provide comments to the Treasury Department (“Treasury”) and the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) on the proposed regulations relating to disguised payments for services between private equity partnerships and partners under Section 707(a)(2)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code. We strongly support the proposed regulations to close the loopholes in the tax code that permit private equity firms to lower their taxes by converting management fees, typically taxed as ordinary income, into capital gains. “

“We are writing in response to recent press accounts discussing the reappointment or possible replacement of the current PCAOB Chairman James Doty. We are concerned that these reports undermine Chairman Doty and his efforts to improve the independence and quality of public company audits. We urge you to lay this speculation to rest by quickly announcing his reappointment as Chair.”

“We believe that it is important that the Commission work to establish true mechanisms for accountability. One way to do that is to develop procedures that allow for public transparency into exemptions and exclusions from prohibitions triggered by statutory disqualifications… We welcome the formalized Proposed Rule of Practice 194, which creates an opportunity for enhanced clarity for both the public and the financial industry. “

“We are writing because we are concerned about the slow progress toward the implementation of Section 956(b) of the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits large financial institutions from using compensation schemes that encourage excessive risk taking. “

“We, the undersigned organizations concerned with data privacy and consumer protection, write to express grave concerns raised by the early reports of the significant data security breach affecting T-Mobile customers and applicants whose information was stored by Experian. “

“Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) is pleased to submit these responses to the RFI issued by the Department of the Treasury. The extraordinary diversity of on-line lending models and the rapid growth of the sector mean that continued monitoring will be necessary and the sector will likely fall into the purview of multiple regulators. We encourage the Treasury Department to remain active in determining the appropriate regulatory models, and we will further examine the responses to this RFI with interest to evaluate what types of regulation seem appropriate.”

“In numerous previous comments, AFR has raised serious concerns about the Commission rules and guidance that exempt foreign subsidiaries of U.S. banks, or U.S. subsidiaries of foreign entities that are highly active on Wall Street, from a wide range of Dodd-Frank derivatives rules. Given the global character of the derivatives market, we believe that such cross-border exemptions create the possibility for large-scale evasion of U.S. rules.”

“AFR supports this proposal to require the recovery of erroneously awarded executive compensation as a condition for exchange listing. Failures in corporate governance have been singled out by many observers, including the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, as a significant cause of the global financial crisis. “

“The undersigned consumer and civil rights organizations write to urge you to issue final prepaid card rules that prevent payday lenders and other predatory lenders from attaching dangerous credit features to the cards. We appreciate the strong elements of the proposed rules, which recognize that overdraft services are a form of credit and that credit accessed through cards must have the robust protections of the Credit CARD Act. While the proposed rules will stop some abuses, we are concerned that loopholes in the proposal can be exploited.”