Hi friend, 

Even though February is the shortest month of the year, Better Markets has been hard at work on actions that make a real difference in the lives of Main Street Americans.  

Every American depends on basic financial products and services, and more than 95% have a savings or checking account, a credit or debit card, loans of all types or investments. That’s why we fight for consumer protection: too many of those hardworking Americans are being ripped off by financial predators who are often overcharging them with hidden fees or otherwise taking advantage of them. When that happens, it’s virtually impossible for people to go after a gigantic financial company and their armies of lawyers and lobbyists by themselves, which is why the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) was created. They are the cops on the financial consumer beat, and they stand up for and fight for Main Street Americans against those giant financial corporations.

And, it has been the most successful and effective consumer protection agency in history, returning almost $20 billion to almost 200 million ripped-off Americans in all 50 states since it was created 14 years ago. That’s why Corporate America hates it; why the Trump administration is trying to kill it; and why our team has been fighting to stop them. Hardworking Americans deserve honest and fair financial services and when they get ripped off they need a consumer protection agency like the CFPB on their side fighting for them and keeping Wall Street honest.  

Our team is also fighting the reckless threats to consolidate financial regulatory agencies. Everyone is in favor of getting rid of fraud, waste and abuse, and many think eliminating agencies through consolidation is a good idea, but facts matter and they show that eliminating or consolidating financial protection agencies would needlessly endanger consumers, investors, markets, financial stability, and our economy. For example, merging the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the CFPB into the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) would endanger the savings and checking accounts of hundreds of millions of Americans, threaten the safety and soundness of the banking system, and definitely increase the risk of another disastrous crash in the years ahead. Similarly, merging the SEC with the CFTC would result in reducing the protections for markets, investors, and customers as well as impact the price and availability of products all Americans depend on every day like cereal, bread, gas and oil. As important, because the industry funds most, if not all, of those regulators, eliminating or consolidating them won’t even save the American people any money.

These dangers aren’t theoretical. They are real and materialized very recently in the 2023 banking crisis, the two year anniversary of which is coming up in early March. We are putting on a webinar to discuss these key issues and I hope you can join us.

We have an all-star lineup to discuss the causes of that crisis, the lasting impact on families, businesses, and workers, and the looming threats ahead. The failures of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank didn’t just hit Wall Street; their collapse and bailouts hurt all of us. Businesses struggled to access bank accounts, pay employees, and secure loans; families faced rising borrowing costs; and bank customers and taxpayers were once again left paying the bill for yet more bailouts.

This crisis was a direct result of the first Trump administration’s deregulatory policies, and now, history seems to be repeating itself, setting the stage for another crash that rivals 2023, and even 2008 and 1929.

Please be sure to join our Director of Banking Policy, Shayna Olesiuk, and expert speakers Kathryn Judge and Jeremy Kress as we mark this anniversary and discuss what’s at stake for Main Street and what we can do about it.

Register here.

Best,
Dennis

Dennis Kelleher
Co-Founder, President and CEO

Shayna Olesiuk, our Director of Banking Policy, testified on February 6 at a House Financial Services Committee hearing on debunking the industry’s debanking claims. Shayna emphasized the importance of regulators considering all risks in their work—regardless of where they come from, including from crypto—to protect Main Street and especially disadvantaged communities that have actually suffered from a lack of access to banking and financial services.

This month the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing: “A Golden Age of Digital Assets." The crypto industry poured millions of dollars into Congressional campaigns, and the hearing appeared to be one of the many ways Washington is making sure they get a return on their investment. Our team's new fact sheet covers something the committee should actually be examining—the crypto industry's long record of crypto crime that's ripped off consumers, investors, and millions of Americans who have been ripped off by the industry.

Our team urged the FDIC to finish the long overdue work to implement enforceable standards that would hold bank executives and boards accountable for preventing failures, promoting safer operations, and protecting consumers. Delaying this action risks further financial instability.

Americans are increasingly losing their life savings to what are called ‘pig butchering’ or ‘romance baiting’ scams. These scams involve online criminals who use fictitious profiles to lure victims into fake romances and then steal their money by convincing them to invest in crypto. In 2023 alone, these scams accounted for over $4.4 billion in losses.

Watch Ben Schiffrin, Director of Securities Policy, discuss these scams on NBC News.

Over the years, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) actions have unintentionally shifted capital-raising activities from public markets to private ones, which has led to a dramatic decline in initial public offerings (IPOs). In fact, the number of publicly traded companies in the U.S. has dropped from more than 7,000 in 1998 to fewer than 4,000 today. This shift has significant consequences, not just for investors but for the broader economy. Public markets provide transparency, help direct capital to its most productive uses, and allow regular investors to invest in growing companies.

The CFPB targets financial predators, lawbreakers and crooks. That’s why Wall Street and its allies in the Trump administration and the Republicans on Capitol Hill have been fighting the CFPB from the beginning.

– Dennis Kelleher in The Los Angeles Times

February 4
Robinhood Yanks Super Bowl Betting Contracts After Regulator’s Pushback

February 6
Trump Media Is Moving Into the Financial Services Industry

February 10
Elon Musk is waging war on a key check on his business empire

February 11
Coinbase Says S.E.C. Will Drop Crypto Lawsuit

February 12
SEC Appears Poised to Abandon Defense of Climate Disclosure Rules

February 21
Coinbase Says SEC Intends to Drop Lawsuit Against Crypto Exchange

February 21
Bybit Hack, Crypto’s Biggest Ever, Spoils Coinbase’s SEC Victory Party

February 25
How Paul Atkins’ deregulatory stance could shape the economy

Each month our legal team outlines some of the top cases we're keeping an eye on, the Amicus "Friend of the Court" Briefs we have filed, and why everyone with a bank account, credit card, mortgage loan, or retirement loan should be interested in those cases.  

February is always a busy month at the start of a new Congress, and this February was no different: Committees continue to hold hearings to move their priorities forward as lawmakers had to push back against DOGE as it aimed its sights at the CFPB.

No more consumer protection? What the CFPB shutdown means for you.
USA Today, February 21

Trump Issues Order to Expand His Power Over Agencies Congress Made Independent
The New York Times, February 19

Fed's Powell: No agency other than CFPB tasked with consumer protection enforcement
Reuters, February 12