Joint Letter: AFR Joins 26 Allies in Applauding DOL’s Commitment to Fiduciary Rule

“As organizations that support strengthening protections for retirement savers, we write to thank you for sending a proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to update and close loopholes in the 40-year-old rules that apply when individuals receive professional advice about retirement investments. Updating protections for retirement savers is urgently needed and long overdue.”

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AFR Letter: CFTC and SEC Must Act Against Derivatives “De-Guaranteeing” Ploy

“On behalf of Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), we write today to ask you to ensure appropriate regulatory oversight of derivatives transactions conducted through foreign subsidiaries of multinational Wall Street banks. In particular, we urge you to prevent the inappropriate classification of such derivatives as ‘non-guaranteed’ by the parent company, a classification which could exempt them from numerous critical derivatives regulations.”

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AFR Joins More than 200 Other Groups in Urging FHFA Director Mel Watt to Reverse Fannie-Freddie Policy on Principal Reduction

Mel Watt is being urged again to end the policy of prohibiting mortgage modifications that reduce the balance of principal. In a joint letter delivered today, more than 200 housing, community, labor, civil rights and consumer groups call on Watt to reverse the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s longstanding ban on principal reduction – a policy put in place by his predecessor.

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Federal Regulators Urged to Crack Down on Bank Complicity in Illegal Payday Loans

AFR joined the National Consumer Law Center, Consumer Federation of America, the Center for Responsible Lending, and 26 other consumer and civil rights groups call for stronger measures to stop banks and payment processors from helping internet and tribal payday lenders collect illegal payments from consumers’ bank accounts.

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