Last week, a panel of conservative judges from the D.C. Circuit Court challenged the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is the only federal agency solely dedicated to protecting consumers’ financial interests. Here’s a look at what that decision really means: Don't disarm consumer protection: Our view, USA Today “Despite all their complaints about the new financial cop on the beat, the big banks remain highly profitable … But apparently, the bankers still pine for the g... Read more

In a guest column in the Baton Rouge Advocate this week, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Financial Services, discussed the need for Congress to erase the National Flood Insurance Program’s $23 billion debt so that homeowners and businesses can rely on an affordable and sustainable program to protect them financial in the face of disaster: “I am calling on Congress to forgive the NFIP’s debt so that as we work to reauthorize the program in 2017, we can start... Read more

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has rightly emerged as the hero in the story this month about fraudulent practices at Wells Fargo. The bureau was the lead agency in the investigation of the bank, where some 5,300 employees (now fired) illegally opened millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts in customers’ names in order to meet aggressive sales targets. Wells Fargo must pay a penalty of $100 million, the largest ever issued by the bureau, plus $85 million to other regulato... Read more

Opposition to Chairman Hensarling’s “Wrong Choice Act” continues to mount: From Advocacy Groups: Hensarling Plan Would Dramatically Weaken Financial Regulation, Americans for Financial Reform Most Americans approve of the reforms in Dodd-Frank and want to see financial regulation made tougher, not weaker … In addition to repealing many of the reform measures adopted in response to the financial crisis of 2008, Hensarling would burden regulators with a series of crushing new procedural duties tha... Read more

It’s been eight years since the financial crisis devastated our economy and six years since Democrats passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act to get us back on the road to recovery. As Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, I’m proud that our efforts have led to financial system that is safer, fairer, and stronger. Under the Obama Administration, we’ve had 76 straight months of job growth, the deficit has been cut by two-thirds, and American households have recovered more... Read more

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen Wednesday pushed back on key elements of House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling's proposed overhaul of banking regulations. In response to a question from a lawmaker at a committee hearing, Yellen was critical of doing away with the 2010 Dodd-Frank law's "orderly liquidation authority," the option that regulators have to manage the failure of a bank outside of bankruptcy. She also rejected an over-reliance on setting bank capital requirement... Read more

On a cold rainy day last fall, dozens of people gathered in a plaza across the street from New Jersey's state Capitol. They held press conferences and slept overnight in lawn chairs. Everyone had come to make the same point: They'd made it through Superstorm Sandy, which hit the shores of New Jersey and New York in October 2012. But three years later, many hadn't made it home. Doug Quinn, a 51-year-old from Toms River, N.J., had been in the plaza for two days. "I should be at home in my house an... Read more

House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer, along with House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters, Monetary Policy & Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member Gwen Moore, and Rep. Denny Heck, today sent a letter to Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby urging action on the confirmation of J. Mark McWatters to a four-year term serving on the Board of the Export-Import Bank. The letter calls on Chairman Shelby to allow the Senate Banking Committee to vote on Mr. McWatters’s confi... Read more

In 1975, Gerald Ford was president, a first-class stamp cost 10 cents, and 401(k) plans did not exist. Back then, millions of Americans earned a traditional pension after working for decades for one company or industry. This pension provided workers with a guaranteed income stream for the rest of their lives and helped ensure they could enjoy a secure and dignified retirement. For the vast majority of Americans, that's not how it works anymore. We now live in a "do it yourself" retirement world.... Read more

Three top Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committee are asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate a nonprofit group for using their quotes out of context to criticize the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Reps. Maxine Waters, Keith Ellison, and Al Green wrote in a letter to the FTC today that Internet and TV ads from Protect America's Consumers may have violated federal regulations that ban distorting opinions to make it seem like they were endorsing the group. Th... Read more

The week before last, I attended a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee in Washington. I was there with a group of public-interest advocates in a show of support for the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and its director, Richard Cordray, who endured harsh grilling from lawmakers on the panel. Since the CFPB opened its doors, it has directed some of the nation's largest banks to stop charging cardholders for unwanted add-on products; protected military families agains... Read more

In a powerful article today, the American Banker took House Financial Services Committee Republicans to task over their shameful questioning of CFPB Director Richard Cordray. Highlights from the article are below: “But if the committee meant to conduct true oversight of an agency so many Republicans clearly detest, it failed miserably.” “Time and again, lawmakers effectively stepped on their own lines, asking Cordray important questions and never bothering to let him respond. They allowed theatr... Read more

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is not alone in having racial disparities in its performance reviews, according to a report issued Thursday by the Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee. The report found that all seven bank, credit union and market regulators displayed significant disparities in employee evaluations, particularly among African-Americans who received lower-than-average scores at statistically significant levels at most of the agencies. Democrats requested th... Read more

House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) today announced the findings of a committee investigation into the employment of minorities and women at financial regulators. "Minorities and women remain underrepresented," among employees at financial regulatory agencies, especially in senior positions, Waters said while flanked by members of the Congressional Black, Asian Pacific American, and Hispanic Caucuses. The report data was garnered from individual agency insp... Read more

On Dec. 11, the stop-gap spending measure currently funding the government will expire. But instead of looking for ways to help Main Street and pull America back from a self-imposed budget “cliff,” Republicans in Congress are already planning how to use this year-end deadline as a way to push through Wall Street’s Christmas wish-list. In my role as the ranking Democratic member on the House Financial Services Committee, I think it’s important to remind and embolden Democrats to stand firm agains... Read more

ON A RECENT SATURDAY AFTERNOON, the mayor of Jennings, a St. Louis suburb of about 15,000, settled in before a computer in the empty city council chambers. Yolonda Fountain Henderson, 50, was elected last spring as the city’s first black mayor. On the screen was a list of every debt collection lawsuit against a resident of her city, at least 4,500 in just five years. Henderson asked to see her own street. On her block of 16 modest ranch-style homes, lawsuits had been filed against the occupants ... Read more

General Electric has reignited a political debate over America’s global competitiveness and the future of its Export-Import Bank by announcing it is shifting 500 manufacturing jobs out of the US to countries that provide export finance. US business has been fighting for more than a year to save the ExIm Bank, the government-backed trade finance agency, which lost its ability to extend new loans on July 1 amid opposition from conservative Republicans. Top chief executives including Jeffrey Immelt... Read more

Complaints about illiquidity are prompting talk about reforms that are simplistic and even dangerous. For months everyone in financial markets has been talking about liquidity. Some say regulation has killed it, and the answer is to roll back financial reform. The reality is not so simple, and that prescription is dangerous. The marketplace is rapidly evolving. We must address future challenges without rekindling crises of the past. Are our financial markets liquid? Primary markets—where compani... Read more

The International Monetary Fund has called for the US to defend and strengthen its Dodd-Frank financial reforms, adding fuel to the intense debate over how to balance stability and growth on Wall Street. In its first comprehensive assessment of the American financial system in five years, the IMF said the US needed to toughen regulation to ward off a repeat of the last financial crisis. The intervention comes as Republicans in Congress seek to water down Dodd-Frank because they say it stifles pr... Read more

WASHINGTON — Too little, too late. That is how some consumer groups and lawmakers describe new federal guidelines meant to encourage banks and other financial companies to hire, promote and properly treat racial minorities and other historically disadvantaged groups. The guidelines, issued June 9 and mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act, provide a framework for financial institutions to conduct "self-assessments" of their diversity practices. However, the standards are voluntary, companies get to deci... Read more

In February, federal prosecutors began a 90-day examination to determine whether to bring cases against individuals for their role in the 2008 financial crisis. The deadline for that inquiry passed last month, with the Justice Department failing to hold any individuals accountable for their crimes. Instead, the DOJ announced that it would allow five megabanks to plead guilty to felony fraud charges related to rigging of the foreign currency exchange market — but would not prosecute a single indi... Read more

Citing the “criminal behavior” of some of the world’s biggest banks, a group of Democratic lawmakers is asking the Obama administration to take a closer look at the lenders’ actions before granting waivers they are seeking. The legislators want Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez to consider the seriousness of the crimes committed by global banks requesting waivers to continue functioning without significant business interruptions, after they agreed last month to enter guilty pleas The request is th... Read more

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives teamed up with their counterparts in the Senate on Wednesday to promote a banking regulatory relief bill they say is better than a broader version pushed by Republicans. House Financial Services Ranking Member Maxine Waters announced at a news conference that all of the Democrats on her panel support a bill unveiled last month by Senate Banking Ranking Member Sherrod Brown, and that it had been formally introduced in the House. Brown, who also spoke... Read more

As ranking member of the House Committee on Financial Services, I've spent the years since the financial crisis trying to provide relief to Americans devastated by the plague of home foreclosures. It’s been challenging work. Programs the government put in place to aid borrowers often were insufficient, hard to understand and needlessly complex. Though the process created many problems, one silver lining is that we’ve learned important lessons about how government can more effectively help indivi... Read more

Last year the vampires of finance bought themselves a Congress. I know it’s not nice to call them that, but I have my reasons, which I’ll explain in a bit. For now, however, let’s just note that these days Wall Street, which used to split its support between the parties, overwhelmingly favors the G.O.P. And the Republicans who came to power this year are returning the favor by trying to kill Dodd-Frank, the financial reform enacted in 2010. And why must Dodd-Frank die? Because it’s working. This... Read more