Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43), Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, released the following statement today in response to reports that the American International Group Inc. (AIG) is considering joining a lawsuit against the U.S. government claiming that the terms of the bailout were unfair: “It is simply outrageous that the board of the American International Group,… Read more »

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-43), Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the $8.5 billion foreclosure review settlement between the OCC, the Federal Reserve Board and ten mortgage servicers: "The settlement announced today between the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve Board and ten major… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank and Congressman Mike Capuano today introduced legislation which would merge the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). "The existence of a separate SEC and CFTC is the single largest structural defect in our regulatory system," said Frank. "Unfortunately, this is deeply rooted in major cultural,… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank today released the following statement in response to the news that Mary Schapiro plans to step down from her position as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mary Schapiro took over the chairmanship of an agency that was failing in its job and she has made major strides towards establishing it as an effective regulator.  She has had the… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank today released the following statement in response to the announcement by the Federal Open Market Committee that it would continue its program of quantitative easing.  In its statement, the FOMC specifically points to its statutory dual mandate to “foster maximum employment and price stability.” I am pleased about today’s decision by the… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank today issued the following statement calling on federal and state officials to reconsider decisions to prosecute financial institutions for wrongdoing committed by smaller institutions which the larger institutions absorbed at the urging of federal officials during the financial crisis.  A recent example is the decision by New York Attorney General… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank today released the following statement thanking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for proposing regulatory changes that will eliminate an unintended ambiguity in the Credit Card Act that could have worked to the disadvantage of stay-at-home spouses or partners applying for credit cards.  The CFPB obtained jurisdiction of this issue in July, 2011, when regulatory supervision of Truth and Lending Act functions were transferred to the new agency.

Congressman Barney Frank today released an analysis of the provisions in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act which address the issue of financial institutions which were thought to be “too big to fail.”  The research was conducted at Mr. Frank’s request by the minority staff of the House Financial Services Committee. The paper is presented in response… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank today issued the following statement in response to recent inaccurate claims by Mitt Romney about the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. During the Presidential debate on Wednesday, Romney asserted that the financial reform law “designates a number of banks as too big to fail, and they're effectively guaranteed by the federal… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank today praised the announcement by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that it has taken an enforcement action against three subsidiaries of American Express.  The companies will refund 250,000 customers a total of approximately $85 million dollars and will pay an additional $27.5 million in civil penalties.  The enforcement action was taken jointly… Read more »

February 9, 2011:  Holly Petraeus before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs   March 16, 2011: Elizabeth Warren before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit   April 12, 2011: Holly Petraeus before the Senate Homeland Security and  Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight of Government… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank today released the following statement in response to the announcement by the Federal Reserve that it would take further action to aid economic recovery. It is welcome and entirely appropriate that the Federal Reserve acted today to take aggressive additional steps to support economic recovery.  Unemployment is still much too high and, as the Open Market… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank today released the following statement about FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco’s decision not to allow principal reductions on mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: The refusal by Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Administrator Edward DeMarco to include the use of principal reduction to help deal with the housing problem that continues to… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank spoke out yesterday against an amendment introduced by Representative Bill Posey, calling it “A tax evader’s bill of rights”, which if enacted and signed into law would seriously undermine U.S. efforts to crack down on offshore tax evasion. The Posey Amendment would prevent the Treasury Department from requiring US banks to report the interest… Read more »

Rep. Frank's opening statement at FSC Hearing entitled “The Annual Report of the Financial Stability Oversight Council”  Click here for a PDF transcript of his opening statement.   CONGRESSMAN BARNEY FRANK OPENING STATEMENT HEARING OF THE HOUSE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE: “THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE FINANCIAL STABILITY OVERSIGHT COUNCIL” WITNESS:… Read more »

  CONGRESSMAN BARNEY FRANK SPEECH ON THE FLOOR OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DURING DEBATE ON THE FEDERAL RESERVE TRANSPARENCY ACT JULY 24, 2012 THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE: The gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized for four minutes. FRANK, B. (D-MA): Thank you, Mr. Speaker.  I think this is a bad idea and I’m somewhat confused. By the way, we will be debating… Read more »

Opening statement at the Hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, “Who’s in Your Wallet?  Dodd-Frank’s Impact on Families, Communities and Small Businesses”   By Congressman Barney Frank June 19, 2012 As delivered Thank you Mr. Chairman. I am struck by what seems to me to be a nice irony in the title, “Who’s in your wallet?”… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank, Ranking Member of the House Financial Services Committee, today released the following statement about the settlement announced on July 13th in which Visa, Mastercard and some large banks agreed to pay retailers $6 billion to resolve a lawsuit concerning the amount retailers pay to accept credit cards. I welcome the proposed settlement.  I believe that a… Read more »

The Department of the Treasury today released an overview of the status of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The second anniversary of the signing of the law will be this Saturday, July 21st. Click herestrongto view the Treasury press release and report.     ### Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank today released the following statement in response to the announcement by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that its commissioners have voted to approve a definition of the term “swap” for the purpose of administering the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.  This rule was jointly written with the Securities and Exchange… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank today released the following statement about the necessity of adequate funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).  The argument for adequate funding has been strengthened recently by the announcement of a settlement with Barclays Bank over allegations that the bank had manipulated interest rates, and by the revelation that losses at JPMorgan… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank today released the following statement in response to news that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the U.S. Justice Department, and the British Financial Services Authority have reached a settlement with Barclays Bank over allegations that the bank had manipulated interest rates.  Barclays has agreed to pay more than $450 million in total, including a… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank released the following statement today clarifying a comment he made during the House Financial Services Committee hearing on the more than $3 billion trading loss by JPMorgan Chase. I said during the hearing today, in a discussion of the consolidation of agencies overseeing the banking industry, that “I am aware of no proposal that came from either side to… Read more »

Barney Brooksley Born, former chairwoman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, will be the featured speaker tomorrow at a press conference on funding for the CFTC.  In the late 1990s, Born was one of the first public officials to recognize the dangers of unregulated derivatives markets.  Her warnings were largely ignored and over the next several years the growing use of… Read more »

Congressman Barney Frank is joined by leading members of Congress and former Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairwoman Brooksley Born in denouncing recent action by the House Appropriations committee to underfund the Securities and Exchange Commission and the CFTC. In his remarks, Congressman Frank emphasized that having these financial regulator "referees on the field" is… Read more »