It’s not just Britons and Europeans who are invested in the outcome of the referendum: Several American companies are lobbying hard to keep Britain in the EU.
Continue readingA win for open data: CFPB’s consumer complaint database
Here’s another win for open data. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau releases data on which banks have the most consumer complaints. Even before the data becomes public officially, banks start improving response times and responding more favorably to customer complaints. That’s the story that’s emerging from the CFPB’s bold decision to make bank consumer complaint data public. This is exactly what open data is supposed to do. It equalizes the balance of power. In this case, it has empowered consumers, and brought accountability to big banks.
Continue readingThe bigger the bank, the higher the complaint rate
The bigger the bank, the higher the rate of consumer complaints. That is the general pattern of a new Sunlight Foundation analysis of just-released consumer complaint data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
The relationship is hardly surprising. The biggest banks consistently score the worst on surveys of customer satisfaction. The most recent survey found Bank of America with the lowest customer satisfaction rate. We find Bank of America to have the second highest rate of complaints, trailing only Capital One, a major issuer of credit cards. Capital One accounts for 21.3% (4,181 of 19,603) of credit card complaints in the CFPB data.
Bank accused of Iran money laundering lobbies in US
Standard Chartered Bank, a British bank with a U.S. division that is suspected by the New York State Department of Financial Services of laundering $250 billion dollars to Iran, has been trying to influence U.S. policy through lobbying, but exactly what the bank is trying to accomplish remains vague.
So far this year, Standard Chartered Bank has spent $90,000 to hire mega-lobbying firm The Glover Park Group, according to Senate records. Complying with regulations, the Glover Park Group has filed lobbying reports quarterly.
Since 2000, records obtained from the Senate and Sunlight's Influence Explorer reveal, Standard ...
Continue readingJPMorgan better at hedging political bets than financial investments?
JPMorgan Chase & Co. may have lost a $2 billion dollar bet on the markets, but the investment giant's campaign contributions show a much more conservative approach, featuring mega contributions to both political parties -- and both of this year's leading presidential candidates.
The company and its employees have been generous donors to political campaigns. JPMorgan's political largesse has totaled more than $21 million since 1991, according to Influence Explorer. The Center for Responsive Politics lists the storied bank as one of President Obama's top 2008 donors; his haul that year made him the top recipient of JPMorgan ...
Continue readingSix Banks that Benefited Most from Fed’s Sweetheart Lending Were Big Political Players
On Sunday, Bloomberg News reported on an estimated $13 billion worth of income that banks gained by taking advantage of... View Article
Continue readingFederal Reserve forced to report which banks benefit from loan programs
It took an act of Congress and a major lawsuit, but the details of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board's emergency loan programs and discount window lending--which peaked at more than a trillion dollars for the nation's biggest banks and other institutions during the recent financial meltdown--finally came into the light.
Created in 1913, the central bank has always kept details of its activities as the “lender of last resort” closely held. The rationale has been that releasing information about which banks and institutions seek temporary assistance from the Fed could cause runs on banks and panic in ...
Continue readingFinance PACs Fill Financial Services Committee Freshmen Coffers
On March 16, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets & Government Sponsored Enterprises held a hearing to discuss... View Article
Continue readingMerchants, Retailers Employ Revolving Door Lobbyists In Regulatory Fight
Merchants, retailers, and their trade associations have arrayed a team of former government officials turned lobbyists in one of 2011’s... View Article
Continue readingFinancial Industry Showers House Financial Services Chairman With Contributions
Last year House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., stated his philosophy on how the relationship between Washington and... View Article
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