Chairman
Frank, Ranking Member Bachus and members of the Committee: I appreciate your inviting me here this
morning to discuss consumer protection and oversight in the financial services
industry in the context of the current economic crisis, and to provide my
thoughts on how the regulatory system should be restructured to enhance
consumer protection in the future. My
name is Ellen Seidman, and I am a Senior Fellow at the New America
Foundation. I also serve as Executive
Vice President, National Program and Partnership Development, at ShoreBank
Ellen Seidman, a former bank regulator who is now a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a think tank, expressed support for the new agency in her prepared remarks for the committee. But she said bank regulators should retain consumer ...
Federal and state bank regulatory agencies should retain their consumer-protection authority, said Ellen Seidman, senior fellow at the New American Foundation and former head of the Office of Thrift Supervision. “I believe that bank regulators, ...
Ellen Seidman, who was Office of Thrift Supervision director from 1997 through 2001, supports the new consumer agency but argued the banking regulators should retain the primary responsibility for protecting consumers. She argues Congress should ...
Washington, D.C.—The U.S. Treasury Department is considering a policy to
create an opt-out account, into which federal income tax refunds would be
direct deposited. In an interview for an article today in the Wall Street
Journal, Michael Barr, Assistant Secretary for the Treasury Department
described the proposal, which was developed by Melissa Koide at the New
America Foundation to increase access to banking services and jumpstart savings
The president has proposed setting up a consumer financial protection agency to protect you from bad lending practices. But how will this change the federal landscape? Melissa Koide is Deputy Director of the Asset Building Program at the New America Foundation. She joins us with her take on what this new agency would do. Link to audio
When President Clinton signed the welfare reform bill in 1996, he changed the
moral debate over poverty by linking benefits to work. However, an opportunity
was missed to create a new type of safety net that recognized not just the
importance of income but having access to a stock of savings and assets as well.
While much attention has been focused on income volatility, severe fluctuations
in wealth and low asset holdings undermine the potential for economic mobility.
Washington, DC -- Beginning
July 1, 2009, Reid Cramer will assume the post of director of New
America Foundation's Asset Building Program. Cramer, who holds a Ph. D
from the LBJ School at the University of Texas at Austin, has been
research director in the assets program since 2003 and played a
leadership role in New America's Next Social Contract Initiative as
well. Before joining New America, Cramer served at OMB in both the
Clinton and George W. Bush Administrations.
"I think the time has probably come," said Ellen Seidman, a Democrat who headed the agency from 1997 to 2001. "I don't think they did such a great job over the last several years." As word came yesterday that President Obama had put the agency on the ...
Jackie Williams, executive director of Ohio's CollegeAdvantage plan, says a 529 needs a range of aggressive and conservative options. Aggressive plans are often sought by parents who started saving late and hope to catch up. ...
