CEI has fought excessive regulation in the financial sector from laws such as Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank. We have scored major bipartisan victories for deregulation. These include the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, signed by President Obama in 2012, that lifted or relaxed some of the biggest burdens preventing small and midsize firms from raising capital and going public; and the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, signed by President Trump in 2018, that lifted some of Dodd-Frank’s crushing burden on community banks and credit unions. We continue to fight to remove regulatory barriers that limit choices and increase costs for entrepreneurs, investors, and consumers.
Banking and Finance Issue Areas
Featured Posts
The Cedar Rapids Gazette
Here’s how Iowa is involved in stopping controversial ‘debanking’
Many Americans have recently been exposed to the troubling reality that their government may be encouraging banks to withdraw financial services from people or firms…
Blog
CFPB Unfairly Targets Zelle
As part of a last-gasp effort by the Biden administration to punish legal businesses it disapproves of, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has sued…
Yahoo Finance
Consumer protection agency closes the Biden era taking big swings
Yahoo Finance cited CEI’s financial expert on bad regulations “I can’t speak to the merits of every lawsuit, they’re filing them so fast,” said…
Search Posts
Marketplace
Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency Prompts Regulation Concerns
Marketplace cites CEI’s Research Fellow Patrick Hedger on Facebook’s new cryptocurrency. Patrick Hedger, a research fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said the Libra…
Blog
Overhaul Internal Operations at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
One of the most important, yet least visible, changes a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director could make is to reform the internal operations of…
Reason
Stop Treating the Government With Respect
Reason cites Senior Fellow John Berlau on regulatory agencies. Those strictures no longer look so strict. New York state’s blue-tribe government last year…
The Pacific Research Institute
Emergency Financial Lifelines at Risk of Disappearing in California
The Pacific Research Institute cites CEI on lenders and revenue generated from short-term loans. While a $100 two-week loan does generate revenue —…
Blog
Regulators Should Foster Financial Innovation
It is becoming increasingly apparent that financial technology, or “fintech,” like other forms of technology, can drastically improve consumers’ lives. Yet one of the most…
Blog
Electric Vehicle Tax Credits Not Popular with Americans: Poll
A recent survey conducted for the American Energy Alliance clearly shows that the public does not support congressional efforts to extend or expand federal tax credits for purchasers of…
Blog
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Should Acknowledge Its Unconstitutional Structure
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s structure is unconstitutional. The agency’s leadership should recognize it as such.
Blog
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Should Define ‘Abusive’
The Dodd–Frank Act was a mammoth overhaul of financial services regulation. Along with creating an entire new consumer protection agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,…
Yahoo Finance
VIDEO: S&P 500 Companies Tighten their Capital Spending, Rising 3% from a Year Ago
Vice President for Strategy Iain Murray joins Yahoo Finance to discuss capital spending.
Blog
SEC’s ‘Regulation Best Interest’ Respects Investor Choice
Today, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved final rules that comprise “Regulation Best Interest,” which will govern conduct of broker-dealers in their transactions with retail investors. Any…
Blog
Prevent Another Mortgage Crisis: Let Qualified Mortgage ‘Patch’ Expire
Last month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its rulemaking agenda for Spring 2019. While there weren’t too many surprises in the agenda, which mainly…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposing Foreign Reference Pricing Legislation
We write in opposition to proposals that import foreign price controls on medicines into the U.S. through international reference pricing.
Blog
Don’t Let Credit Scoring Kerfuffle Compromise GSE Reform
Just when it seemed that reforming the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was becoming a “third rail” that politicians did not want…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter in Support of Confirming Mark Calabria to be Head of FHFA
View Full Document as PDF Dear Majority Leader McConnell, We write to express support of Dr. Mark Calabria’s nomination to be Director…
Blog
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Should Drop Flawed Enforcement Actions
While the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s role in enforcing consumer protection laws is important, there are times when it oversteps the mark and brings frivolous…
Blog
Narrowly Address Fair Lending Requirements to Spare Impact on Small Business
Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act amended the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to require financial institutions to collect, report, and make public certain information concerning…
Blog
Reform Fair Lending Laws to Uphold Rule of Law
The CFPB’s new director, Kathleen Kraninger, assured the Senate Banking Committee in her confirmation hearing that she was committed to upholding the rule of law.
Blog
Regulators Should Rescind ‘Small-Dollar’ Loan Rule
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is one of the most controversial regulators in Washington, D.C. Since its founding in 2010 under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street…
Blog
Credit Card Interest Cap Would Create Consumer Credit Bread Lines
Last Thursday Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) teamed up to introduce a bill that only two democratic socialists could have dreamed up.
Blog
Alice Rivlin, 1931-2019
Some economists do more than teach classes and write books. Alice Rivlin, who passed away this week, was proof. She was the first director of…
Blog
Good and Bad of Government’s Debt Collection Proposal
Earlier this month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a much-anticipated proposal to revamp the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), a forty-two year old…
Comment
CEI Comments on CFPB Payday Loan Rule
View Full Document as PDF Introduction On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), I am pleased to provide the following comment…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposing Revival of Expired Tax Extenders
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Leader McCarthy, and Leader Schumer, Over 16 months ago, a package of temporary business tax breaks known as “tax extenders”…
Blog
Australian Government Tempts Mortgage Crisis
It seems that Australia’s political parties are suffering from collective amnesia. After spending the earlier half of the year criticizing banks for abrogating their responsible…
Letters
CEI Joins Coalition Letter Opposing Reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank
Dear Members of Congress: On behalf of our groups and organizations, which collectively represent millions of Americans across all 50 states, we urge you to…
Blog
The Economic Illiteracy of a 36 Percent Interest Rate Cap
Earlier this week, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing on a draft bill that proposes to set a national 36 percent annual percentage…
Blog
Will Reforming Consumer Finance Regulation Cause a Recession?
Will reforming consumer finance regulation cause a recession? That is the claim of a recent article in The Hill. Yet, the article provides little evidence to…
The Hill
Federal Reserve defies White House and Congress on Banking Regulation
President Trump and the Federal Reserve continue to clash over interest rates, but another simmering dispute concerns the regulatory burden the Federal Reserve and other…
Blog
CEI Leads Coalition Supporting Reformed Payday Loan Rule
Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute led a coalition of eighteen free market organizations in support of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s decision to rescind portions of…
Comment
CEI Leads Coalition Letter to CFPB Regarding Proposed Rule on Payday, Vehicle Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans
Dear Director Kraninger, The undersigned organizations write in strong support of the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s decision to rescind portions of the Payday, Vehicle…
Blog
Reformed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Can Be Free-Market Regulator
Earlier this week, The New York Times Magazine rolled out another edition of the tired old trope of how former acting Director Mick Mulvaney “destroyed”…
Blog
Shed Light on Cryptocurrency ‘Dark Matter’ Regulation at SEC
A few days ago, the Trump administration issued a memorandum strongly discouraging what the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Wayne Crews has called “regulatory dark matter.” The…
Blog
Restrictions on Debt Collection Impede Access to Credit
In a market economy that is based on private property and the rule of law, the efficient and effective enforcement of contracts is indispensable. Without…
News Release
SEC Threatens Access to Cryptocurrency and Other Digital Goods
The Competitive Enterprise Institute today released a report warning that government regulation of cryptocurrency as a “security” threatens innovation in financial transactions and other consumer…
Study
Cryptocurrency and the SEC’s Limitless Power Grab
Many questions are being asked about cryptocurrency. Is it a major innovation that will improve standards of living in ways we cannot yet imagine? Or…
Blog
VIDEO: Bitter Taste of Big Sugar’s Corporate Welfare
John Stossel and the team at Reason TV have a new video out on the expensive and wasteful federal sugar program, which benefits a tiny…
The Hill
Federal Reserve defies White House and Congress on banking regulation
President Trump and the Federal Reserve continue to clash over interest rates, but another simmering dispute concerns the regulatory burden the Federal Reserve and other…
Blog
Lyft and the ‘Cheers’ IPOs: How Overregulation Leaves Middle-Class Investors Behind
After much anticipation, Lyft finally went public today, opening on NASDAQ at $87.24 per share—well above its initial public offering price of $72. Lyft’s market…
Blog
Bank Regulators Must Correct Flawed Volcker Rule Proposal
As my colleague Devin Watkins discussed earlier this month, a number of federal administrative agencies are refusing to correctly implement a crucial piece of regulatory…
Blog
Agencies Failing to Follow Law on Key Financial Regulation
The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 is one of the worst pieces of legislation to have become law in recent history. It created the Consumer Financial…
Letters
CEI Leads Coalition Letter in Support of Volcker Rule Relief
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen: As conservative and free-market organizations concerned with reducing red tape that is holding back American entrepreneurs, consumers, and investors, we urge…
Comment
CEI Comments on Volcker Rule Relief
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI"), we are pleased to provide the following comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking to implement amendments…
Blog
Fintech and the Future of Consumer Finance
Everyone understands the need for access to credit. No matter how well we budget, we occasionally come up short due to an unexpected circumstance or expense—a…
Blog
SEC Should Stop Coercing Brokers to Buy Data From Exchanges
There are many types of burdensome government mandates, but of all the Ten Thousand Commandments, regulations that coerce the purchase of a particular product or…
Inside Sources
The Trump Administration Just Relaxed Payday Lending Rules. Is That Good or Bad for Borrowers?
Inside Sources cited Policy Analyst Daniel Press on the CFPB and payday loans: When drafting the original payday lending rule, the CFPB believed…
Crowdfund Insider
The House Financial Services Committee: What Should Fintech Expect from Chair Maxine Waters?
Crowdfund Insider cited Senior Fellow John Berlau on his predictions for Representative Waters: John Berlau, of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, recently …
Fox News
Elizabeth Warren’s ‘Wealth Tax’ Faces Constitutional Questions
Fox News cited Attorney Devin Watkins on a proposed wealth tax: The tiny number of rich people in State B would have to…
The Washington Post
CFPB Wants to Weaken Rules for Payday Loans
The Washington Post cited Policy Analyst Daniel Press on payday loans and the CFPB: “The newly proposed payday loan rule is…
Blog
Financial Services ‘Regulatory Sandbox’ Is Win for Consumers
The comment period on a critical new initiative to promote innovation in financial services from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau closed this Monday. My colleague…
Comment
CEI Comments to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection Proposed Policy on No-Action Letters and Product Sandbox
On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI"), we are pleased to provide the following comment letter on the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s (“Bureau,”…
