Americans for Financial Reform

08/28/2026

Private equity and venture capital executives are opening their checkbooks to unseat a senator who dared threaten the carried-interest tax loophole.
The carried interest tax loophole is an income tax avoidance scheme that allows private equity and hedge fund executives to substantially lower the amount they pay in taxes. It allows PE barons to claim large parts of their compensation for services as investment gains, which allows them to pay lower tax rates than middle class taxpayers pay on their wages and other compensation.
The loophole exacerbates income and wealth inequality. Treating carried interest income as ordinary compensation income could raise between $1.4 billion and $18 billion annually. A significant majority of voters across parties support legislation that would close this loophole.

Partners at major private equity and venture capital firms wrote the largest checks to Advance Progress, which is working to unseat Sen. Ed Markey in the Sept. 1 primary. The industry accounts for more than 40% of the super PAC’s receipts.

08/28/2026

A sobering new report from the Institute for Policy Studies lays bare the scale of excessive CEO compensation at America's largest low-wage employers.
The data is alarming: CEO pay has skyrocketed 41.4% since 2019 while worker wages have barely kept up with inflation. Executives have raked in billions through stock buybacks and inflated compensation packages while their workers struggled to get by on poverty wages.
But most importantly, the report also outlines three achievable policy changes we can implement to fix this.
Read the full report ⬇️

Executive Excess 2026

08/26/2026

It should go without saying that allowing the megarich to use insurance companies like their personal piggy banks is a very bad idea.

Link to more story details in the comments ⬇️

08/26/2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: WASHINGTON, D.C.—The National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) strongly condemns the Trump Administration’s latest attack on key civil rights protections and affordable access to mortgages and lending for all people in the United States. The Equal Credit Opportunity Act, by st...

08/21/2026

Today, AFR joined dozens of consumer, community, and civil rights organizations in urging the House Financial Services Committee to reject the CFPB Reform Act of 2026, a new proposal that, if passed, would severely limit the CFPB's ability to do its job.

(Press Release: https://ourfinancialsecurity.org/releases/ )

We need the CFPB now more than ever. If the so-called CFPB Reform Act of 2026 is passed, it will undermine the agency's ability to hold big banks and tech companies accountable and to protect people from unfair, predatory, and discriminatory financial practices.
The CFPB has already faced countless rollbacks, attempted shutdowns, and drastic funding and staff cuts in the past year.

(here's a timeline of what's been going on: https://ourfinancialsecurity.org/resources/timeline-of-cfpb-attacks/ )

While everyday people struggle to make ends meet, the Trump administration and its allies in Congress continue to look for ways to dismantle the only agency with the sole mission to protect people from the scams, discrimination, and abusive financial practices.

We know from our polling this isn't what people want. Even in our polarized political climate, there is a near-unanimous shared belief that it is important to regulate financial services and products to make sure they are fair for consumers.

(2026 polling: https://ourfinancialsecurity.org/resources/2026-polling-cfpb/ )

08/17/2026

ICYMI, on Friday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced a move to shield large corporations from public scrutiny by ceasing publication of the narratives people submit when they ask for help from the CFPB and the data visualizations that help the public understand the patterns in the more than 17 million reports submitted to the CFPB to date. This leaves the public without critical data it can use to hold corporations accountable.

“The CFPB has encouraged people to share their stories about financial scams, harmful practices, customer service runarounds, and discrimination for over a decade without issue,” said Tom Feltner, director of consumer policy at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. “Hiding the experiences of everyday people is just another attempt by the Trump-Vought CFPB to cover up people’s widespread and growing mistreatment at the hands of financial firms that make their lives more difficult and more expensive.”

08/11/2026

Today, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and New York Attorney General Letitia James, joined by the AGs of California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Vermont filed a lawsuit to block a Trump banking regulator’s expansive override of state consumer protection laws.
Until recently in most states, if you pay your mortgage from an escrow account and the funds in that account gained interest, the bank could actually keep that money that was earned on your hard-earned funds instead of passing it along to you.
While that's still the case in many places, in the last few years there have been numerous state-level victories to fight back and stand up for the rights of consumers. But last year the OCC finalized rules that would overrule progress made in the states.
“The OCC”s action is a giveaway to Wall Street banks at the expense of people paying for their homes, and the AG lawsuit takes much-needed action to stop it," said Caroline Nagy, associate director of housing policy at Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund.
If the OCC approach is allowed to stand, it would block state efforts to protect people from harmful financial practices and give huge national banks an unfair advantage over smaller state banks.

Today, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and New York Attorney General Letitia James, joined by the AGs of California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Vermont filed a lawsuit to block a Trump banking regulator’s expansive override of state consumer prot...

08/05/2026

We’ve got another great webinar 8/6 at 2pm ET / 11am PT and we’d love to see you there! Join moderator AFREF's Caroline Nagy for a live discussion with housing experts from Los Angeles, Houston, and New York City on what affordable housing providers and cities can do to fight back against rising costs and fight for affordable housing security for all.

🙏RSVP and share with your networks: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/4517841262038/WN_2_b9hWrkSRmiRnhJLImzLg

08/04/2026

Did you know Congress is considering exempting banks who experiment with AI from established financial laws that protect civil rights and financial stability? What could go wrong? Find out in our new report⬇️

Congress is considering dangerous legislation to create broad exemptions from federal laws and regulations for the use of AI by regulated financial firms.

07/31/2026

Yesterday's private bailout of a former FTX employee's hedge fund is not an isolated incident. Margin debt is at an all time high, and investors across the board are borrowing money to bet big on AI. If those bets go bad, the leverage investors used to make them could amplify market stress and lead to cascading losses. Regulators should strengthen the guardrails around our financial system before it is too late.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/business/artificial-intelligence-situational-awareness-citadel.html