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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

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