Between 2007-2012, America’s most politically active corporations spent $5.8 billion on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. A Sunlight Foundation analysis suggests, however, that what they gave pales compared to what they got: $4.4 trillion in federal benefits.
Continue readingOpposition grows to Jamie Dimon role at Federal Reserve
A grassroots movement with some big name support is calling for Washington’s favorite banker to cut his ties with the Fed. Some 30,000 signatures have been collected on a Change.org petition urging that the chief executive of embattled JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, resign or be removed from the New York Federal Reserve's board of directors. The petition creator, Simon Johnson, is the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. In the past Change.org waged successful campaigns on issues ranging form the Bank of America debit card fee, to working conditions in Apple’s Chinese ...
Continue readingData lacking on overdraft fees
More than six months after new federal rules went into effect that prohibit banks from charging consumers overdraft fees unless they “opt in” to such an arrangement, government data are lacking on how this has changed banks’ bottom lines.
“This is the most expensive form of credit, and consumers most likely to use it are the most vulnerable. You’d think regulators would want to know exactly how much revenue banks are taking in,” says Jean Ann Fox, director of financial services with the Consumer Federation of America.
The federal regulations came after years of controversy over banks’ practice of ...
Continue readingFed says mortgage disclosure rules up to new consumer agency
Improving mortgage disclosures for consumers will have to wait until July when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) comes into business, the Federal Reserve Board announced yesterday.
In the face of criticism that homeowners didn't always understand the terms of mortgages they took out during the housing boom, last fall the Fed proposed enhancing disclosures to consumers under the Truth in Lending Act. The new rules would have changed disclosures for reverse mortgages, as well as restricted certain advertising and sales practices for them, as well as proposing new disclosure rules for loan modifications. The agency received more than ...
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