Draft GPUS Platform Amendment Banking Insurance Reform
SECTION TITLE: BANKING AND INSURANCE REFORM
SECTION SUBTITLE: Justice and stability for our banks and insurers
OUR POSITION: Greens support overhauling the banking and insurance industries, to end their culture of impunity and ensure that never again will they commit fraud and malfeasance so severe as to drive our nation into a massive recession or depression.
Greens aim to reform the banking and insurance industries so that they meet their obligations to the taxpayers and local communities.
GREEN SOLUTIONS
Banking reform
1. Break up our nation's largest banks and financial institutions so that none is "too big to fail." End taxpayer-funded bailouts for banks, insurers and other financial companies.
2. Regulate all financial derivatives, ban any speculative use of derivatives, and require full transparency for all derivative trades, to control risk of systemic financial collapse. Require exotic financial instruments to be subject to regulatory pre-approval.
3. Re-enact the Glass-Steagall Act, which prohibited bank holding companies from owning other financial companies and engaging in risky economic transactions.
4. Oppose the federal government being the final guarantor of speculative investments.
5. Democratize the Federal Reserve Board.
6. Enact an independent and free-standing Consumer Financial Protection Agency, to stop banks and other financial companies from committing fraud, ripoffs and other abuses.
7. Ensure that low and moderate-income people have access to banking services, affordable loans, and small-business supporting capital.
8. Oppose disinvestment practices, in which lending and financial institutions move money deposited in local communities out of those same communities, damaging the best interests of their customers and community.
9. Support the extension of the Community Reinvestment Act to provide public and timely information on the extent of housing loans, small business loans to minority-owned enterprises, investments in community development projects, and affordable housing.
10. Strengthen disclosure laws, anti-redlining laws, and a general openness on the part of the private sector regarding criteria used in making lending decisions.
11. Oppose arbitrary or discriminatory practices that deny small business access to credit.
12. Support development of charter community development banks, which would be capitalized with public funds and work to meet the credit needs of local communities.
Insurance reform
13. Clean up the insurance industry. Eliminate special-interest protections, collusion, over-pricing and excessive industry-wide practices that too often injure the interests of the insured when they are most vulnerable. Prohibit bad-faith insurance practices, such as avoidance of obligations and price fixing.
14. Enact single-payer universal health insurance. Until single-payer is established, we support federal laws that act to make insurance policies transportable from job to job and seek to prevent insurance companies' rejecting applicants because of prior conditions.
15. Support and encourage the insurance industry's efforts to engage in loss prevention, to reduce the incidence of death, injuries, disease and other calamities.
16. Support initiatives in secondary insurance markets that work to expand credit for economic development in inner cities, affordable housing and home ownership among the poor, transitional farming to sustainable agriculture and rural development maintaining family farms.
17. Oppose insurance laws that permit a company to own insurance on its employees.
Broader financial industry reforms
18. Aggressively crack down on crime, fraud, malfeasance and tax evasion in the financial and insurance industries.
19. Support measures to reduce executive compensation at banking, insurance and other financial companies.
20. Support the formation of Citizens' Utility Boards to support the interests of consumers and policyholders.
21. Favor a tax on stock, bond, foreign currency and derivatives transactions to discourage speculation.
2004 PLATFORM ON BANKING AND INSURANCE REFORM
The Green Party supports a broad program of reform in the banking, and the savings and loan industries that acts to ensure their commonwealth obligations to all communities. Since lending institutions are chartered by the state to serve the best interests of communities, the privileges that come with power at the center of commerce carry special social responsibilities.
1. The government should ensure that low- and moderate-income persons and communities, as well as small businesses, have access to banking services, affordable loans, and small-business supporting capital. Loans should be made available to small business at rates competitive to those offered big business. We support disclosure laws, anti-redlining laws, and a general openness on the part of the private sector regarding criteria used in making lending decisions. We oppose arbitrary or discriminatory practices that deny small business access to credit.
2. We oppose disinvestment practices, in which lending and financial institutions move money deposited in local communities out of those same communities, damaging the best interests of their customers and community. We support the extension of the Community Reinvestment Act and its key performance data provisions to provide public and timely information on the extent of housing loans, small business loans to minority-owned enterprises, investments in community development projects, and affordable housing.
3. We believe Congress should act to charter community development banks, which would be capitalized with public funds and work to meet the credit needs of local communities.
4. Insurance industry regulation is essential to reduce the cost of insurance by reducing
* special-interest protections; * collusion and over-pricing, and; * excessive industry-wide practices that too often injure the interests of the insured when they are most vulnerable.
We must prohibit bad-faith insurance practices, such as avoidance of obligations and price fixing.
5. We support federal laws that act to make policies transportable from job to job and seek to prevent insurance companies’ rejecting applicants because of prior conditions. This is a move in the right direction but in no way addresses the scope of the problem, whether in health insurance, life insurance, business, liability, auto, or crop insurance.
6. We support initiatives in secondary insurance markets that work to expand
* credit for economic development in inner cities; * affordable housing and home ownership among the poor; * transitional farming to sustainable agriculture, and; * for rural development maintaining family farms.
7. We oppose insurance laws that permit a company to own insurance on its employees.
