Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, released a statement following the announcement of the newly appointed Democratic Members to the Committee, who will serve for the 115th Congress: “Democrats are now the last line of defense to fight the onslaught of Wall Street Reform rollbacks and deregulatory bills the Republicans will try to rush to President-elect Trump’s desk. But we are more than up to the challenge,” said Congresswoman Waters. “I w... Read more

Today, Financial Services Committee Democrats, led by Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), demanded that President-elect Donald Trump reject any attempts to deregulate Wall Street by removing the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), Richard Cordray, prior to the expiration of his term in July 2018. In a letter to President-elect Trump, the Members said they will strongly oppose any action towards removing Director Cordray from his position as CFPB Director. In addition, th... Read more

In response to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) notice earlier today announcing the reduction of annual insurance premiums on most mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, praised HUD Secretary Julián Castro for his leadership in strengthening the FHA to carry out its mission to expand homeownership to low income borrowers, minority families, and first-time ho... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, issued the following statement in response to a report published today by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) discussing the compensation paid to Write-Your-Own (WYO) companies that administer to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). In 2014, Ranking Member Waters called on the GAO to study federal payments to WYO insurers and how they relate to actual expenses incurred by those insurers... Read more

Following her statement denouncing President-elect Trump’s nomination of Steve Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) called on the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to immediately release documents pertaining to investigations into any fraudulent or discriminatory activities committed by Mnuchin’s bank, OneWest. Congresswoman Waters underscored the urgency behind releasing these documents due to the conflict of inter... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, released the following statement in response to a memo leak documenting widespread misconduct at OneWest, a bank that was headed by President-elect Trump’s Treasury nominee, Steve Mnuchin. The leaked memo exposes the bank’s violation of notice and waiting period statues, which subsequently forced struggling homeowners out of their homes, resulting in tens of thousands of foreclosures in California at the h... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, issued a statement following President-elect Trump’s nomination of Wall Street lawyer and Goldman Sachs adviser Jay Clayton as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a major regulator of banks and Wall Street: “With this latest pick, Donald Trump is fervently continuing his campaign of nominating Wall Street insiders to regulate Wall Street. Jay Clayton is just the latest addition to the... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, released the following statement on the Federal Reserve’s decision today to raise the target range for the federal funds rate: “While I don’t agree with the Fed’s decision to raise rates, I am a strong advocate of an independent Federal Reserve free of political interference. I am concerned that under the new administration and with the support of a Republican-controlled House and Senate, the days of an in... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, spoke on the House floor opposing H.R. 5143 as the next bill in the Trump agenda that would benefit Wall Street at the expense of financial stability. “This week’s gift is less oversight of the largest insurers in the U.S., which will put us at risk for another AIG,” Waters said, noting the global insurer was a poster child of the financial crisis and was bailed out to the tune of $182 billion. Waters expl... Read more

Today, leading Democratic lawmakers called on the Department of Labor (DOL) to hold a public hearing on its recent proposals to let five megabanks with a history of criminal misconduct to continue managing assets of U.S. pension funds under the preferred status of “qualified professional asset manager” (QPAMs). The letter was signed by Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services; Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA); and Reps. Bobby Scott (D-VA), Ranking... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, issued the following statement after President-elect Trump announced he will nominate Dr. Ben Carson to serve as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): “Dr. Carson’s nomination to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is frightening. He may be a brain surgeon but he is not qualified to run HUD. Donald Trump knows this. During the Republican primary, he call... Read more

Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) was re-elected unanimously by the Democratic Caucus to serve as Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services for her third term. She released the following statement: “I am honored to have been re-elected to lead the House Financial Services Committee in the 115th Congress. We face many challenges in the years ahead, with President-elect Trump threatening to dismantle Dodd-Frank, putting our financial stability and consumer protections at risk. ... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, spoke on the House floor opposing H.R. 6392, a bill that would let President-elect Trump’s Wall Street-friendly administration deregulate 27 of the largest banks in the country. “H.R. 6392 would repeal Dodd-Frank’s $50 billion threshold, above which banks are subject to closer regulatory scrutiny, and prevent the Federal Reserve Board from regulating these banks,” Waters said. “Instead, it would hand over ... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, issued the following statement on reports that President-elect Trump will nominate Steven Mnuchin to serve as the next Treasury Secretary: “Donald Trump ran a campaign on anti-Wall Street rhetoric, but appointing a former hedge fund manager, Goldman Sachs executive, and bank CEO as Treasury Secretary shows his true colors. Mr. Mnuchin is a Wall Street insider with ties to big banks that have a troubling pa... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, signed onto an amicus brief filed today with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s petition to have the entire court revisit an earlier decision by a three-judge panel that struck down the Bureau’s structure. Waters was joined by 20 current and former Members of Congress in supporting the CFPB’s appeal in PHH Corp. v. CFPB, including Sen. Sherrod Brown (... Read more

Today, top Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee sent a letter to Inspectors General at federal financial services agencies, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Justice, calling on them to root out any potential conflicts of interests in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. Led by Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA), the letter was also signed by Ranking Members Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Spons... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, spoke on the House floor opposing H.R. 5711, a bill that would undermine the Iran nuclear deal, thereby jeopardizing both U.S. and global security. “I am particularly concerned that this bill comes at a time of deep global uncertainty about U.S. foreign policy," Waters said. "We have a President-elect whose talk on foreign policy has ranged from vague and contradictory in some areas to utterly incoherent e... Read more

The leading Democrats on the Senate Banking and House Financial Services Committees today urged Congressional leaders to reject any attempts to use must-pass government funding legislation to repeal, weaken, or delay financial reforms and consumer protections. In a letter to Senate and House leaders, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) said they will oppose ideological policy riders to year-end funding legislation aimed at rolling back protections of the Dodd-Frank Wall Stree... Read more

Today, Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ranking Member of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services; Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA); and Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) sent an open letter to financial services trade groups demanding that they condemn the appointment of Stephen Bannon to President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. The Members noted that the Mr. Bannon’s track record of bigotry... Read more

In her opening statement at a full committee hearing with Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, denounced President-elect Trump’s stances on financial services and Congressional Republicans’ deregulatory Wall Street agenda. “The demise of the regulations that Wall Street is cheering are the very regulations that have made our consumers, investors and economy safer and more resilient.” Wat... Read more

Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, sent a letter to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) expressing serious concern over a seven-year delay in the public availability of Wells Fargo’s performance evaluation under the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The letter is the latest in Waters’ ongoing efforts to hold Wells Fargo accountable for its fraudulent activity following its settlement with regulators last month over th... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, released the following statement today in response to an announcement by Wells Fargo & Company saying that Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John G. Stumpf would retire from the company, effective immediately: “Given Mr. Stumpf’s failure of oversight at Wells Fargo, I believe it is more than appropriate that he today decided to retire from the company, effective immediately. Wells Fargo’s misconduct, in... Read more

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, issued the following statement on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision today regarding the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB): “The CFPB is a critical part of the Dodd-Frank Act and has returned nearly $12 billion to more than 27 million consumers by going after fraud at large banks like Wells Fargo. After years of industry and Republican attacks falsely claiming that the CFP... Read more

In light of more than 2 million fraudulent deposit and credit card account openings at Wells Fargo, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, and 10 Committee Democrats urged financial regulators to strengthen a proposed “clawback” rule regarding when a financial institution must revoke senior executives’ bonuses. In their letter, the Members underscored the need to strengthen rules regarding incentive-based compensation at financial institutions,... Read more

In her opening statement at a full committee hearing on the unauthorized accounts at Wells Fargo, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, urged Chairman and CEO John Stumpf to tell the truth about the fraudulent activity that occurred and take full responsibility. “We still do not have the information we need to understand how this happened, when the sales culture turned toxic, and who knew about it and when,” Waters said. Waters called for a th... Read more